The Ignite, Evolve and Building Bridges tickets spent several hours on Friday, Feb. 25 reaching out to students in the quad and near the Ritter entrance to the Busch Student Center.
“You are seeing three tickets coming together here and I think it is pretty funny to see how intense the competition has gotten between the three of us, but it does show that we are all just working and trying to bring out creative ideas,” Diversity and Social Justice Vice Presidential candidate for Building Bridges Kripa Sreepada said. “We are all doing it for the good of students and I think that we have a good energy about it.”
Those creative ideas got a boost on Friday as Vice President for Student Organizations candidate for Building Bridges Tyler Sondag and Academic Vice Presidential candidate for Building Bridges Patrick Grillot built a “student rock” made up of cardboard and aluminum foil. The rock was rolled down campus to the quad as the Building Bridges ticket and supporters gathered to smash it open for the case of Red Bull inside.
“I think it shows we have kind of refined the way we have done campaigns and we are going to redefine how student government works and so I think that is what we are all about and I think students are noticing that,” Presidential candidate for Building Bridges Matt Ryan said.
The Evolve ticket was also present in the quad as Brett DeLaria passed out “Pokémon Card” flyers to the students passing by. The small flyers have each candidate on their ticket in a different card frame as they each have their individual platform points on the cards.
“Almost everything we are doing has our stuff on it so people can see what we stand for, so they can know, so it isn’t just like yelling and saying vote for us just because,” Presidential candidate for Evolve Jimmy Meiners said. “Like the Pokémon cards, they are funny but they have valuable information on them as well.”
The Ignite ticket stayed out of the quad to focus on students coming into the BSC. Different candidates from the ticket took shifts for their table with a poster, buttons and flyers for students. Candidate for Vice President for Student Organizations Jessica Rozycki passed out The University News to students passing by saying “vote ignite, the most endorsed ticket in The UNews.”
“I am feeling really good about the election so far and how we are going to empower SLU,” Rozycki said.
Candidate for Vice President for Internal Affairs for Ignite, Kathleen Cadigan, also felt positively about the election and her ticket’s campaigns efforts to reach students. “We are getting our name out there so that people know what we are all about and the issues that we stand for. I think that is the most important thing that we have going for our ticket is our solid credentials and our spirit and initiative and willingness to get out their to everyone on SLU’s campus,” Cadigan said.
In the late afternoon, all three tickets were present in the BSC passing out handouts to students and sometimes competing with each other for student attention. Two days remain for these campaigns as candidates race to get students informed and involved.
“I consider it a dead tie right now and so these next three days will decide the election,” Ryan said.
Students can vote on Banner Monday, Feb. 28 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The results will be announced later that evening at unewsonline.com and on SLU-TV.
