With IU Student Government elections underway, Bridge IU and Vision are spending their last two days before the results are announced campaigning across campus.
Vision team members, wearing white T-shirts complete with the campaign logo printed across them, passed out pamphlets describing four of their dozens of policies to students walking by the IU auditorium yesterday.
Bridge IU campaigners were scattered around campus as well, encouraging students to vote, familiarizing students with Bridge IU’s platform and passing out suckers.
Elections close at 10 p.m., and results will be announced Friday morning.
The tickets laid out their policy proposals on their respective websites and discussed them at a town hall and a debate. The Indiana Daily Student broke the tickets down in a voter guide.
“The policies we chose show the depth of our campaign,” Vision presidential hopeful Isabel Mishkin said. “Implementing monthly IUSG town halls is something we could do in the first 30 days, while building a stronger Lifeline Law would take the academic year and then some most likely.”
Vision is focusing on reaching students at the individual level, she said. The ticket was engaging with students campus-wide.
“We want to talk one-on-one, meet students where they are, take the time to have a conversation, shake someone’s hand and look them in the eye,” Mishkin said. “That’s been powerful for me.”
Mishkin, junior, hopes students can see they are cared about, she said.
“With large institutions, it’s really easy to feel disenchanted,” Mishkin said. She hopes that these last two days campaigning allow students to see the support they have from their peers, she said.
Bridge IU’s presidential candidate Mackenzie North, junior, also hopes students know their student government wants to listen to them, she said.
“A lot of students haven’t even heard about what student government is, so it’s kind of eye-opening,” North said. “It’s been fun to let them know what student government is about and what Bridge IU is about.”
It’s been a lot of work building up to this week, North said.
She and the two team members campaigning with her Wednesday outside Herman B Wells Library shared Bridge IU’s policies with passing students or directed them to their website if they didn’t have time to stop.
“We’re telling students that we stand with them and that we are here to listen,” North said. “It’s been pretty cool to engage with students who want to get involved with their student government.”
Freshman Geneva Mazhandu, a current member of Congress campaigning for Bridge IU, said that she really agreed with the policies of Bridge IU and wanted to get involved.
“I felt like there is some change that needs to happen, and I think that Bridge IU can bring that,” Mazhandu said.
Bridge IU’s emphasis on unity would make students one campus and one family, saidShakshi Choudhary, Bridge IU’s directory of diversity and inclusion.
“I haven’t totally agreed with past campaigns’ policies because they haven’t really focused on international students even though they make up such a large part of IU, but Mackenzie decided to dedicate a major part of her entire campaign to make us feel safe and comfortable,” Choudhary said. “Her policies tie all of us together.”
Both campaigns focus on student unity. Student government is all about representing all students, Mishkin said.
“I think that is so emblematic of what this campaign is —bringing people together, inspiring people and making sure everyone feels like they have a place,” Mishkin said.
“Vote your vision!” junior Drew Ficociello, a member of the Vision team, shouted at students walking by the auditorium Wednesday.
She was hoping that tabling would help to build transparency with student government and familiarize students with the voting process, she said.
“No matter how this election turns out I think we’ve mobilized so many students to fight for students, and I’m just very proud of this team,” Ficociello said.
