Episode 2: SGA Senate Candidates Pt. 1

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqOXio3v3DI"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]you're listening to the political dive red raiders is material silis with the daily torador and we're on the political dive i'm joined by amanda hampton and your position here is i'm the lavita editor perfect and uh we bring you the special edition of the political dive image do you want to explain about it so for this podcast series we um will be interviewing sga candidates um to discuss with them their platforms that they're running on and just the goals that they have um for when they're elected if they're elected to office so you're about to hear several uh candidates um interviews that we've done um throughout this podcast um and they had the chance to come on board and just speak about their platforms they were all asked the same questions and they were all reached out to in a timely manner and they all have the same opportunity to come on to this podcast this is the first episode of a two-part series and so um we're still waiting for several of the candidates to reach out or to decline coming on or just to let us know when they want to record um but yeah here's the podcast so what is your name major and position you're running for so my name is channing wicks my major is graphic design so i'm in the vpa um but i'm actually running for an at-large senator position so perfect and what made you run for the senate this year so i think it something big that i like really want to do is to be able to represent students that maybe don't know what sga is or like especially i think being from like when i first think of sga and i think a lot of people do they first think of oh students who want to go into law or politics or poli sci majors like all those things and for me it was one of those things that i was like i can be creative and still want to make an impact like on campus and be able to represent that body of students and so i'm super excited just to be able to do that again this year hopefully and just be able to represent our student body and also just learn like more about what students want to see on campus so and what made you run for an at-large senator and rather than a college senator yeah for sure um so i last year was kind of debating you know do i run for vpa or do i run out large and just felt like at large i could have a little bit more of an impact i'm involved in a lot of different areas on campus and so i felt that if i were to run at large i would maybe have the ability to have a greater voice in student government association and just be able to um represent the student body well um so yeah okay and then what are your goals that you want to achieve while in the senate yeah for sure um i feel like goals come and go every single day there's always a new challenge especially i feel like 2020 was an example of that like all these different changes um that were going on and happening and so um currently i feel like i'm working on things such as i'm working on a piece this week and talking about free menstrual products um on campus in the public restrooms and so noelle sloane the cfo is currently working on that and it's something that i want to continue to have um be it's not like a oh in one week we're gonna do this thing so that's something i would want to continue if i am re-elected into a senate spot and then as well as something that i'm running on is just i think dei um diversity equity and inclusion is something that maybe not everyone everyone obviously's eyes have been open to things that maybe we didn't see before in this last year and that's something that i am wanting to have my eyes open to as well learn new perspectives from people that i maybe i'm not in their shoes or they're not in my shoes and just be able to take away the biases for each other and sit down and have a conversation of hey like how can i help you have a better experience at texas tech and then what platforms are you running on this time yeah for sure so kind of like i said um diversity equity and inclusion um as a whole and that's something that i think sga can do a better job of i think we've worked on we've passed certain things this past semester or this past year that i could talk about but i think that that's something that we continually can get better at we're never going to be perfect but we can always continue to get better and hear the voices of students as well as affordability um and so i mentioned free menstrual products that's something that i'm working on now and hope to work on more in the future as well as um i think i know the um jarrett lujan is running for graduate vice president and he wants to work on something that might not apply to me but him more so that i can help with legislation is insurance for like international and graduate students and that's not something i've experienced because i'm not a graduate student but something that um i think i could help with being an outlet senator so perfect and then what challenges do you think you'll face next semester yeah for sure i think um one of the most challenging things of student government is i think especially being an outlet senator is having so many different opinions and everyone believes something different which is totally okay but pulling all of those opinions and perspectives into view and figuring out what's best for the student body and communicating with the deans and with administration in order to um make the voices of the students heard but also make the best decision for the students is what's challenging because not everyone's going to be happy with every decision i might be like wait we're making what decision you know like and so just being like okay we're going to do what's best for the students um and yeah just like being able to make the voices of all the students heard which is hard but i think right now like we might be showing like 20 of the voices of the 45 000 students but maybe we want to get to 60 percent by this next year and so that's something that i think is a challenge and is hard for sure but something that i would love to do as a senator so and then what can you offer the students on campus for next semester yeah for sure um i think i kind of like i mentioned earlier being in just a different realm of people like i'm not going pre-law and i'm not wanting to go into politics or anything like that but i think i have perspectives that maybe someone else might not understand and being like oh you know like i want to go into a creative field and these are things that affect vpa students while they may not affect rural students they might affect them and so i think that's something that's different that i can offer a different perspective but i also think i'm willing to listen to absolutely anyone's perspective and i'm also will be honest and transparent with things that i'm working on and hey like i am struggling with this initiative or i want to work on this but i don't quite know how to do it can you help me and so i think i have the ability to be vulnerable and transparent and just ask students hey what can i do for you and i hope that they see that i want to do that for them so perfect and then are you part of any of the coalitions that are happening around campus right now like any of those groups are forming together as a block or yeah so um i'm currently a part of it's called raiderland renewed um and so i believe that's the only block um as a whole that is running and so i am really thankful that i had the opportunity to be on a block and so yes i am part of that and so kind of some of the initiatives i mentioned they're running on and have a lot more ideas the executive team does for sure and so um yeah okay perfect yeah and what else would you like to add um i'm trying to think i feel like student government association is something that a lot of people don't know a ton about and would love to just be more transparent with the student body and so we do it's been harder with covid obviously just like having that openness but we can't have all people together you know like but we did have a town hall on zoom last semester and so i think wanting to continue those and just continue hearing um perspectives from students and hearing um what they would like and you know i would love to hear like hey i hear you're running for at large please dm me on instagram and be like hey could you work on this because there's things that maybe i don't see and i also this past year have been the advisor for first year council so it's been really helpful to hear the perspectives of students living on campus because they have a totally different perspective like i have a different perspective this year than i did living on campus last year and so just allowing their opinions and their perspectives to also come into play um has been super helpful and so i think just continuing to do that will be really helpful so i'm excited and yeah hopefully it'll be a good year perfect thank you so much yes thank you okay i'm abigail jaber i'm majoring in math with a minor in actual science and then also philosophy and spanish on my other majors awesome okay so what made you want to run for the senate so i'm running for arts and sciences senator because i've lived in lubbock my whole life i've been like a part of the lubbock community the tech community for forever and i've never really been directly involved other than you know being a student and i've just decided that i want to be more involved and help like make decisions that really affect campus in a positive way just because i've never had that type of impact and i would like to be able to say that i've like done something to benefit tech yeah for sure and then what are your goals that you have while in the senate so obviously i'm with the block um the only block this year which is um raider land renewed so we have i have like those ideologies as them but like i also have my own um ideas that i want to go for so i really have noticed like this was even before covered like there's not that many water fountains that are nice on campus you know there are like a couple of those um really nice like water filtered ones where you don't have to touch it or anything and there's just not those in the library or some other locations that i feel like could really benefit having those because lubbock waters are like many people don't really like it so i think that would really benefit a lot of people especially with covid you know they've shut down a lot of water fountains and who knows what it's going to be like next semester like i think that we should definitely figure something out with water and making it accessible to students while they're on campus because some people probably have to be here all day and um like luckily for me i work on campus so i have access to water like filtered water and stuff but like other people don't so i definitely want to figure out something maybe with like water bottles or i don't know just getting something with water figured out because water is really important and also um recycling the recycling has closed at tech and i think it would be really cool to start something up with recycling i doubt the recycling center would open again but maybe if we could do like recycling drives on campus and raise some money to be able to donate that because you have to pay to recycle and love it like it's already so hard to recycle and now that the tech one is closed i definitely think that sga should look into something with recycling on campus got you and then um what platforms are you running on so there's all the platforms with my campaign which is like affordability um transparency diversity equity and inclusion all that good stuff okay sounds good and um what can you offer the students on campus i think i can offer the students like a common face i feel like a lot of the people involved in sga like want to be lawyers or like want to do other things involved with politics but like i just want to help tech and like obviously other sga members do too but like i really just want to be an sga to really further tech and like i feel like i would just be more of like a common type person in sga if that makes sense like i'm not like all the rest in the sense that like i am like really good at politics and stuff like that like i think i'd be more of like a kind of like casual person in there who would be able to offer insight from like other students yeah i don't know if that makes sense yeah that was good and then what challenges do you think you'll face next semester my biggest fear is definitely that like the stuff that i try to do won't be possible or that what i want to do won't happen and that would definitely be pretty disappointing but as long as i try my hardest like i'd be pretty happy but it would be kind of sad if like i really can't do any of the stuff that i want to yeah and then are you a part of any coalition and if so what platform are they running on my personal platforms are like recycling student wellness um like mental health especially with covenant and everything um so that's a big thing and then those are also like mental health mental wellness in general is part of the blogs campaign with greater than renewed um like like food pantries and stuff like that so those are what my block is running on like i said diversity equity inclusion transparency stuff like that okay well that was all the questions that i have was there anything else that you wanted to add no not really okay well thank you so much for joining us um can i get your name major in the position you're running for yes so my name is disha gandagunte i am a nutritional science major and i'm minoring in theater acting chemistry and biology and i'm running to be college of human sciences senator perfect and what made you run for the senate position oh that's a great question so my journey with sga started a little bit before i entered as a freshman into college and i was a part of this program called camp lead and a lot of the counselors who were my counselors were a part of student government association so once i came in as a freshman i knew that i really wanted to be a part of it and i joined the freshman leadership association through student government association and i interned with the director of communications who at the time was alex todd um so then the next year i ran for um senate of senate position through student government and i actually got i got into this study abroad program that i wanted um to do and then i had to like sort of not campaign as hard because i probably wasn't gonna be able to be a senator just because i was going to be studying abroad um but then unfortunately covet 19 happened and so the beginning of the semester last year i wasn't a senator but then halfway through the semester i got an email from sga and they told me that they they had a spot open to be a senator and i interviewed and for the rest of the semester i had the honor of being a college of human sciences senator so um i sort of wanted to continue what i was working on and have the opportunity to make more of an impact and represent the students at the college and i would love to do that this semester and this coming up year perfect and then what are your goals while in the senate if you do become elected yes of course so um my goals for this this year if i was given the opportunity would be to really stress affordability so right now for undergraduate students the average cost of textbooks is about eight hundred to a thousand two hundred dollars and even though in the scope of things that is a lot of money a lot of students are having to make a decision between education or paying their rent and we don't want it to be that way so sga right now um or the block that i'm running with which is raiderland renewed um is really striving to be a part of like inclusive access for textbooks so even though they aren't specific textbooks that the teacher wants um to just give like a resource for students who can't afford the specific textbooks to be able to learn and get a couple more resources to help them with their classes with graduate students that's another problem entirely with affordability for insurance and i know that once you turn 26 years old you get off of your parents insurance so that's a problem that has existed for a couple of years and um hopefully this year we'll be able to come up with a good solution and make sure that international students also get good insurance coverage and that there are different options provided for graduate students along with affordability i want to make sure that there's diversity inclusivity and equality so we're making sure to have sort of a lift others while you climb approach to student government so not only will we be voicing the opinions of our constituents but also um we want to make sure that as we make difference we also help the other students who are in charge of different organizations across campus also um i guess give them the resources to also make a difference on a wider platform just because there are so many different perspectives in education and experiences that each student on our campus has and to give them the opportunity while we're given the opportunity would be the end goal we want to make sure that the wellness of all the texas tech students is met so not only in a mental capacity but also physically so we're making sure that we raise money for the food pantries on campus as well as um just give them resources for mental uh mental wellness and um just make sure that everyone who's on the tech campus feels taken care of perfect and then what um can you offer the students on campus what can i offer the students on campus um i think first and foremost i want to be able to be there and listen to any concerns they have um this semester we're really working on being more transparent and excessive to students so if given the chance um i would more than be happy to meet with any students who are in my college or even if they're not in my college and want i could help them connect to someone who was in their college so make sure that they know what sga is working on all that information is available and has always been available on the sga website but also um look for ways to make it a little bit simpler to access or just be able to have all the members of texas tech university all be on the same page so i think i would work really hard to listen to them and be able to express their concerns during town hall meetings on a one-on-one basis and i would make sure that whatever issues did come up my way um that i i went to the people who i had access to and really used all the resources i had to make a difference and then what challenges do you think you will face coming into next month or next school year oh this is a very good question so obviously we're in a global pandemic and that has never happened before so next semester um hopefully with things getting better we don't know what the future will hold but in case we ever do get the opportunity to sort of get past the the major barriers that covet that the covey pandemic has um i guess created we would be able we would need to be able to sort of create a new normal and we've seen all the inequalities and things that need to be fixed um that that covet 19 has sort of brought to our attention and all the inequalities and problems that existed even before kovid was a thing so i think um that would be like not a big problem but it would be a challenge that we would work together to overcome and create new solutions for perfect and then um you mentioned that you're part of a block um what else is a block running on that you know of raiderland renewed is the block that i'm a part of and along with the issues that i talked about previously they are also trying to do more with the food pantry so we know that right in the past couple of semesters we've asked students for donations and we really want to expand the food pantry not only um through what's available to the students but also create an endowed student scholarship so where we can um give students and give the opportunity to students to apply for the scholarship and allow them to apply for for money to put towards rent so that way not only are they at texas tech and getting a good education but they know that we care for them as an individual and hopefully in the long term that would increase retention rates um so that's something else that the block has been working with um this semester we've been doing a lot of virtual work and social distance events where we're handing out wellness packets and mental illness resources just because we know that this pandemic has been a hard place for students to be mentally and class wise and we want to make sure that texas tech continues to provide a quality um holistic approach to education perfect and would you like to add anything else before we conclude um well thank you for giving me this opportunity i love getting to learn different perspectives and i think the daily torador is such a great um resource for not only learning about different events that are happening through the texas tech campus but also to learn what the different organizations that you elect us to do are doing for the students so this was a great opportunity and i really thank you for your time perfect well thank you so much for coming on so my name is brinkley rash i'm a journalism major with a minor in political science and i'm currently running as an at-large senator for texas detention okay awesome so what made you run for the senate so growing up i had always held various leadership positions from head cheerleader to media and communications senator which i served as this past year and this year so i really just want to have a voice for those who don't have the availability or the option to use theirs um i also whenever i get older i would like to be a news broadcaster and i would also like to transfer what i'm learning in sga and running as senator to my future career of you know being a news broadcaster and have the opportunity to use my voice there too got you and then what are your goals while in the senate so some of my goals while i'm in the senate would be things on campus that we have discussed um this year also that i would like to see carried out into this next year so things like uh free feminine hygiene products is one of the things that i think is really important that i'm actually going to be co-sponsoring on um this this senate um you know lighting on canvas um i also really like congratulatory pieces just because it's like that extra oomph of hey like you did an amazing job this is what texas tech is doing this is what we stand for like these are uh the people that come to texas tech and the leadership at texas tech and we get to like congratulate them on that and that just feels really special to me and really sentimental so that's just some of the stuff that i'm working on now um as for next minute whenever i learn run for at large you know with everything going on in cobib we're not really sure on how everything's gonna look so whenever we get there i would like to reassess some of the things that i think could be helped whenever we get to that point okay and then what platforms are you running on so i'm running on the greater land renewed platform okay and what do you think that you can offer students on campus so i believe that my diversity in a lot of the organizations that i'm in from pi benefit the president's select program student body government um alpha and the delta honor society things like that it gives me a very diverse group to go off of and represent so i wouldn't necessarily be representing just you know pi-fi or you know the sorority that i'm in or be representing just the people that i hang around in my house and my friend groups you know i think i have a lot of diversity in my friend groups a lot of diversity when it comes to like my leadership skills and my friend groups in general so i believe that i can represent a very large diverse group of people yeah and then what challenges do you think you'll face next semester so the biggest challenge i think would probably be covid you know we've been a part of this kind of gimmick for over a year now and um i really do think texas tech has handled that in the best way possible from um social density classes online classes you know and as much as i would love things to be in person i think the best thing that sga can do is just continue to press for you know social sustain social distancing you know talk to teachers about what we can do to better serve the students and make them feel like they are getting that college experience um as for running for at large this next semester you know again i don't know where we're going to stand on that whenever we get there because that is you know almost a whole semester away and you know things are constantly changing but i definitely would like to reassess that with the student body government whenever we get there yeah okay and then are you a part of any coalition and if so what platform are they running on could you explain me what you mean by coalition um like i guess like are you a part of like any group that's running or are you like running by yourself oh yeah i'm running with rarely renewed okay um and then so that was all the questions i had for you was there anything else that you wanted to add um no just that i'm excited to be a part of this and excited to run and represent the student government's best of my ability and i hope i can make people's voices heard so my name is james brady i'm an agricultural communications major with a political science minor and i am running to hopefully be your one of your at large student body senators perfect and then what made you run for the senate you know i one thing that i regretted from freshman year i took a gap semester from the time i graduated high school to when i entered texas tech in the spring of 2019 and one of the things i regretted about not being at texas tech in the fall of 2018 was that i couldn't get involved with freshman senate then um i i tried to get involved last time but i missed the filing deadline i had some other stuff going down working for a local congressman it was just too busy at that time um but i got in touch with with faizal al-hamoud who's a good friend of mine who's running as our student body this time around and i've always really wanted to do this i love texas tech and i've always wanted to help represent it and and promote it and progress it forward towards a better world-class university that we all know it is and i i wanted to get involved and faizal um offered me a a a chance to run um with the raiderland renewed campaign um as an outlaw senator and i jumped at it and so i'm proud to be running with him and our wonderful external vice president um candidate abaring uh um and uh and our wonderful internal vice president taylor antoinic and our graduate vice president jared lujan so um i'm i'm really excited for this campaign even though i'm 350 miles away um and i am uh really excited at the prospect of being able to represent um the university which i've which i've loved my whole life and will continue to love and and my fellow students perfect and then what are some of your goals if you were to be elected to the senate well so raiderland renewed has a couple of initiatives we've got four initiatives and those are affordability diversity equity and inclusion wellness and campus life and so some of my goals would be to really focus on wealth wellness and then affordability the state legislature deregulated tuition in 2003 and ever since then you know tuition prices have shot up my my parents attended texas tech university it's where my mom and dad went and when they were in school they were paying 1500 a year and i'm sure as you know we are now paying ten thousand dollars a year that wasn't in 1970 that wasn't in 1980 my parents graduated in 1995 so about 25 years ago the idea that tuition could go up 1000 for students in 25 years is ridiculous but it is what it is um and so really what we want to focus with at the undergraduate level and what i'd like to focus with at the undergraduate level is is being able to make sure that that amenities and the things we need as students are affordable so a big thing we're going to be looking at um hopefully next year um is textbook costs and what what we really want to strive for is inclusive access and being able to pay for our textbooks through tuition um data shows that people do better um on in class if they have the book on the first day versus if they don't because usually after they don't have the book on the first day they get demotivated to get the book and they just they tend not to do better and they just try to wing it i've i've definitely done that before and it's not a successful or smart approach but it's most of the time to no fault of their own textbooks um are an average cost of 800 to 1200 dollars for a semester they're exorbitant and so what we'd like to do as the student council as raiderland renewed um pardon me the student senate is is really tried to to drive that down and be able to help our fellow students pay for that more um in addition we'd also like to covet 19 has thrown a wrench in a lot of our lives um so this this past year we took away the the um the sports uh uh fee um to to get us access into sporting events for the red raiders um and we we'd like to post covet be able to to retrieve those low cost fees for our students to get in to to sporting events and other amenities that we had before covet and that we will have again because this will end in due time um and we want to make sure that our students still have the the ability um to pay for those within reason and still have access to those um in addition i i really want to to focus on wellness as a student senator um uh you know we need to focus on making sure that every single student has food um in our our university the fact of the matter is when the belly's working the mind's working um and there have been plenty of studies to show that hungry students don't do well food is an essential item as well as shelter and water and we need to make sure through things like the food pantry and sga endowed scholarships which we'd like to propose inform that students have access to essential necessities whether they're on campus or they're off campus and make sure that they're being taken care of at the basic levels in order to help them succeed as much as possible um and then something that that is not necessarily part of regular raid or land renewed our platform but that i i have a personal um uh stake in is getting back into the classroom um you know like i said coven 19 has thrown a wrench in our lives and it's been awful and we need to to stay the course and making sure to mitigate risk but there's a dual side to it in that the the hybrid in online moving to classes has really impacted a lot of students um in their ability to learn it impacted my ability to learn last semester um and so i'd personally like to see um as a state senator state senator good lord i'm getting my jobs mixed up as a student senator um uh initiatives that get us back into the classroom in a safe manner but that get us present because there really is no substitute for in-person instruction so um those are kind of some of the goals that i'd like that's probably longer than you wanted but those are some of the goals that that i'd like to work towards as an at-large senator and i hope that my fellow red raiders agree with my take on those um and so yeah and then um what do you what can you offer to the students on campus next semester if elected well you know i uh that my job this semester is interesting in going through the legislative process um i've held leadership positions on campus whether that be through the agri-texans um or working on you know committees within my fraternity phi delta theta on campus um and so i i can offer hopefully i can offer leadership being able to get stuff done um working hard for my fellow students um to to to make sure that our access to things and our our the the price we pay for amenities at texas tech or just um how we learn is protected and cared for from a student point of view so yeah and then uh what challenges do you think you will face if you like to enter the senate next semester well i mean a big challenge that we're gonna face is is the cobin 19 pandemics i've got a feeling that it's going to continue on throughout the summer you know there are some estimates um that say we won't that we'll be back to normal by april i think that's a little optimistic not to say that optimism is a bad thing but i think it's a little bit overly optimistic dr fauci says he thinks we can be back to normal by christmas so next fall we're going to face those challenges i think still and being able to mitigate covet 19 risk being able to get shots and arms and students and staff to make sure that that our teachers are protected as well as we are and making sure that the people are taking the proper precautions it's going to be very important um you know we're going to have a struggle i think getting textbooks included in the tuition um but it's a it's a fight that i think faizal mood is willing to fight that the bear is willing to fight that talin's willing to fight and that i i know i'm willing to fight because the fact of the matter is that nobody should have to pay 1200 for books for your education that's just ridiculous um so that's going to be a fight but it's one i'm prepared to roll up my sleeves and and and punch it out and work towards a a better tomorrow for our students perfect and before we end this um interview would you like to add anything else you know i hope um my fellow students will go out and vote for me um and but more importantly go out and vote for faizal and abery and taylon and jared on march 16th i hope through this interview um i'd i can show my fellow students that um i'm willing to fight for them and make sure that they have a better tomorrow on campus um and i also hope um that they'll go and follow my social media accounts at official james brady and at my twitter account at official jay brady and go friend me on facebook let's be friends if you've got ideas let's let's let's talk about those um unfortunately i won't be in lubbock much this semester to do a whole lot of in-person campaigning but just because i'm down in austin doesn't mean i don't care about this university i've cared about this university literally since the time i was born you know my mother has pictures of me in a texas tech polo at six months sitting out in front of the fountain so i literally love texas tech since i was since the day i was born down here in austin texas um and i i love texas tech and i hope that my fellow students will give me an opportunity to represent them and to fight um for a better future hi my name is kelly schwinneman i'm a political science major here at tech and i am running for a senator position for the honors college so there are a few things that really made me decide to run for senator this year um but the first one is that i had such an amazing experience in the first year leadership association which is within student government i got to serve as secretary and i also had the opportunity to intern for our student body president hunter heck that was truly an amazing experience because i got to see firsthand how much of an impact students have on campus i got to see brainstorming to writing legislation to presenting legislation on the senate floor to passing it so i really understand the cycle of legislation and what it takes to get change done here on campus but second i'm really passionate about leadership one of my favorite quotes that i tell people all the time it's by abby wambach she's a famous soccer player she said if you're not a leader on the bench don't call yourself a leader on the field you're either a leader everywhere or nowhere and i just really relate to her version and how she defines leadership to me i see it as a responsibility i have a duty to represent the honors college here on campus if i were to be elected as senator and it would truly be an honor to do so as far as my goals if i were to serve as senator the most important thing to me is having a transparent and representative term i really want us to show the diversity of our campus we have so many amazing voices that need to be heard i want it to be very transparent the problems we're having on campus the challenges we're facing what makes us struggle here on campus so that we can fix it and address it and so that's one of my biggest goals going in to this campaign as far as the platforms i'm running on one of the biggest ones actually has to do with parking and transportation um so right now the honors college the actual residential hall it's a hub for traffic right now we have the starbucks the chick-fil-a einstein bagels um and right now many people turn on their hazards they run into get something and this creates traffic jams almost every day and as our acceptance rates goes up as we're receiving more new red raiders every year um we're having a problem keeping this influx of students on campus in a healthy way i'm in a safe way and so i feel like that's something that i really want to work on with transportation and parking and see if it will be possible to make this a safer environment for students to not have this hold up to have traffic flow more easily and second i really want to improve upon the class selection for honor students so as honor students we have to complete a certain number of honors credits courses hours etc um and i really want to make sure that people's interests their specialties what applies to their major that it's available so that it's feasible for them to graduate with honors and furthermore another initiative that i'm running for on this platform is that we have a better relations student professor relationship here on campus in our honors classes these professors are amazing they do so much for our university whether it's research or the classes they provide us with and i just really feel like our students can learn from them we have so much to learn and so the more feasible and accessible it is for us to talk to them for us to reach out for us to get to know them the more relationships networks connecting we can do with them and i really like i really feel like that will be beneficial for our students and as far as what i can offer for the students on campus i'm really going to go back to that's transparency and um representativeness one thing i'm really big on is i don't want to get my name out there just so i can put it on a resume or that i can boost my ego or my arrogance that's not why i want my name to be out there i want my name to be out there so people feel comfortable coming with me being honest telling me what they don't like about tech or what they do like about tech and they don't want to change i want to be a voice of reason someone that people can talk to and know that their concerns are heard and they're valid and they're taken seriously um i feel like as senators and if i were to be as elected as a senator it would be my duty to be representative of the voices within the honors college and be a voice for them and so that's something i can really promise is that i will be a voice of reason that i will listen to their concerns and know that they will be represented here on campus as far as what challenges um we will be facing this next semester bottom line is we don't know what this next semester is going to look like we don't know what the state of this world is going to be at at this point whether that be more in-person classes less in-person classes we just truly don't know at this point and so i feel like the role of student government is to make whatever transition we have to face as easy and successful as possible the most important thing is student success and that students are thriving here on campus we saw this past year that some students really excelled in online classes they liked the mix of hybrids where others they weren't retaining the material as easily their grades were heavily affected by the coven 19 situation that we're all facing and it's just a reality for us college students and so i really want to ensure that no matter what happens no matter what we're faced with no matter what struggle has thrown us at us next um that next semester semester we continue to improve campus life that we make that transition easier and that we listen to the concerns of students and what they're struggling with going to college in the middle of a pandemic and really listen to them and hear their thoughts and feedbacks on that so yes i am a part of the raiderland renewed block i am so excited to be running on this campaign this is a group of so many talented individuals with so many years of experience whether that be academically personally etc etc they're all amazing they have so much um legislation that they've already passed in student government and then some people are running for the first time so we really have a wide mix of people ready to serve um and so we have a lot of platforms that we're running on this year and we have a lot of things we're wanting to do with affordability whether that be more transparency with fees how we're going to allocate the budget we're doing work on wellness with the food pantry with specific sga scholarships as far as campus life goes um we're wanting to really focus on those admission rates how do we keep what makes tech appealing while also accepting new red raiders every year and then of course also we want to break down the polarization that is happening on campus as far as d e y is concerned so really i encourage everyone to look more into our platforms that's just like a brief little synopsis of what we're running on but the information's out there on all of our social media pages at raiderland renewed so i really encourage everyone to just educate yourselves on what we're running on if you like something if you don't like something um i know we're all open to hear any concern any feedback both negative and positive we want to hear from the student body and finally i just like to add i really want to encourage everyone to use your voice use your voice here on campus educate yourselves see what people are running on see what you want people to represent you with this year and you get to pick your senators you get to pick who's writing legislation on behalf of the student body um so really i just hope that everyone goes out on vote and votes um website ttu.edu vote slash march 16th and 17th and i hope everyone gets out and votes so thank you so much my name is ivy thane i'm a sophomore finance and accounting double major and i'm running for at-large senator i chose to ran for the senate this year because i really wanted to give back to texas tech and serve my university and get involved and i'm super grateful for this opportunity because i wasn't involved in sga last year but i think it's awesome that anyone can get involved with sga at any year so i'm super excited for this opportunity and really i just wanted to get more involved with the university as a whole and make some changes on campus after being a student at texas tech for a year i think it's really interesting to hear all my friends and my peers opinions on different things you know and when you're just talking with your friends about how they wish there was more parking on campus or wish textbooks were cheaper you just start to think maybe there's something i can do about that in some way i can make a change so that's why i want to run for senate just to get more involved and start to see some of these positive changes become implemented so i am running on the campaign block raider land renewed and we have four buckets of initiatives that include affordability dei wellness and campus life and i would say my main goal is to focus on affordability while in senate i'm super passionate about affordability because i'm super passionate about education and when you're passionate about something you just want to share with everyone and i truly believe that we should focus on making education more available for everyone and just continue to share it and a big part of that is affordability you know when you look at the less fortunate person who made it to tech they're here whether it's on loan money grant money scholarship money but now they can't buy their textbooks that's a real issue so that's one of the main things i'm going to be focused on is the textbook affordability um like i was saying textbooks are about 800 to 1200 on average per student per semester so when you have someone less fortunate and that's their money they're going to choose to buy a textbook or eat with for the semester they're not going to buy the textbook and studies show that students do better when they have their textbooks on the first day of class and it's just another resource that can be used for learning and education so we're looking at all types of different alternatives to this looking at open education resources oers which are just databases that include all subjects um looking at that as an alternative for textbooks or just making them all on blackboard just there like hyperlinked for your classes to make that more easily accessible and have that through your tuition of course with every idea there are positive positives and negatives to everything so that's something that's really going to take a lot of creative thinking and innovation throughout the year that we'd be serving in sga but i think that's something that i really want to focus on is affordability another big thing involving campus life as we return to this new normal i mean as the mask mandate was just lifted and everything how's that going to look for the campus there are just a lot of new questions that have to be answered so i think that's going to be another goal of mine as well i sort of touched on some of the platforms i'll be running on um with raider land renewed but i can go more in depth into some more of them like i was saying in terms of campus life as we're returning back to higher capacities and what this means for university and just student life on campus one thing we're looking at is you know when classes have higher capacities now there's going to be more students on campus which means less parking parking's been really available recently which has been awesome but when we return to higher capacity classes how is this going to change so i think maybe looking at more parking or different parking options is going to be really important in the near future and another thing that is really awesome about this campaign is we're focused on student wellness and part of it is helping others and giving back to others the sga food pantry has been um out and about you can check out that on our instagram learn more about that on t2sg instagram but just incentivizing donations encouraging students to donate whether it be ten dollars five dollars one dollar to those less fortunate and the food pantry just taking this time while we're all struggling through um this new normal quote unquote new normal i keep talking about just to take that time to give back to others and encourage wellness for students of all types all backgrounds and just including everyone and that also leads into our dei initiative just um expanding everyone including everyone and making sure that we're all in this together as one university in one campus what can i offer students on campus so after going through all my goals and initiatives i think it's pretty obvious that i'm super passionate about student life and improving that for everyone so really i'm just looking to be a voice for the people i just want to be there to listen and hear students ideas students complains students goals anything that people want to be heard and be that voice for them in the senate and i just think that's super awesome um about sga that students are coming together to represent everyone on campus and get everyone's initiatives heard and get their goals accomplished and that's really a huge goal for mine is just to be a voice for everyone on campus that's also why i chose to run at large and why i'm super excited about that so if anyone wants to contact me with any ideas or questions or anything i'm so open to that i love meeting new people especially on campus and i'm really looking forward to hopefully be that voice and serve my university in that way we are definitely going to be facing all sorts of challenges next semester i mean just with what's happened this week with the mask mandate and everything there are so many unknown questions moving forward are we increasing capacity if we are by how much what is this going to look like for student life just so many unknowns and that can be a little scary but that's also super exciting and something that i'm looking forward to is serving in this unknown time because it opens the door for a lot of creativity a lot of innovative thinking and a lot of positive changes to be made and i think that's what we're seeing with everything that's happened in the past year it's really just an opportunity to improve so with all the challenges facing next semester with increasing capacity what that's going to look like on campus in terms of parking creating a positive community for first-year students on campus dorm life how's that going to change what's that going to look like so many unanswered questions like i said but hopefully if i do get elected this will just be an opportunity for me to make everyone's voices heard in the senate and just be a positive reinforcement of all the opportunities that this next semester will bring for us at tech i am part of a block i'm running on raider land renewed like i talked about earlier and our initiatives include affordability di wellness and campus life and i did touch on all of these a little bit earlier but i think our platform is really unique and really awesome and really opens the door to a lot of positive changes in this unknown time that we're facing right now and i really support all of our initiatives and i'm really looking forward to get those heard and get the ball rolling and just get in the senate if i do get elected and just start accomplishing our goals because i do believe that they'll bring a ton of positive changes to campus and um i'm really excited to be able to talk about those more once we start getting closer to election and letting everyone on campus hear about our goals initiatives and how much we just can't wait to serve you all the only thing i have to add is to check us out on social media at raderland renewed we have a lot of exciting posts coming up as we get closer to elections so i really would just love for everyone to see those and um see more of our campaign also check me out on social media i'm addie thane on everything if you want to get in contact with me i'd love to hear your voice like i said earlier and meet new people and talk to you about why i think you should vote for me for at large senator but thank you so much for having me this was so fun and i'm really looking forward to the upcoming elections recom my name is adiola i'm a junior civil engineering major and i'm running as a senator for the college of engineering what made me run for the senate well for me it was due to covet you know last semester the old sodding um transitioning from impress into online classes it was a big switch for me was a big challenge because it wasn't what i was used to you know as an engineer most of what we deal with is outdoors you know the structures the beauty are all outdoors and so having to suddenly switch to a new learning style it was definitely a massive challenge and it literally took me like half of the semester to find the balance and even speaking with you know my classmates my colleagues they felt the same way and you know this literally motivated me to bring in you know the issue before the student government association and that is actually where i'm running at the senator my goals while in the senate uh well definitely my main goal would be to push for more input for more in-person classes you know more of the hybrid style so that way we have you know a little of the face-to-face interaction but you know before we get to that stage i'm looking to see if it's possible to increase the class participation grades and reduce the exam grades and i say this because with classes being online um most instructors have their exams open book you know open notes because there is no way to actually supervise you know what you're accessing during the exam and so it's more like a class exercise as against an exam because it's open note you know and so if we can actually take part of those um percentage and add it to class participation then that way students are motivated to actually show up to like their online class they're actually motivated to be engaged they're motivated to study more but if you know the grades are the same i like this because the participation grades are like you know ten five percent it's not really there's really no motivation there but if you can increase it that way people are more interested in actually being involved in classes uh what platforms am i running on i'm running on the raiderland renew platform and basically this platform is aimed at accommodating uh a wider range of students you know a wider range of you know current and prospective students you know so we are looking on things like affordability where we can make what we can reduce the cost of textbooks we're looking at uh diversity equity and inclusion you know make the campus a more diverse atmosphere you know wellness expand the full pantry you know get more scholarships out there campus life you know just making sure people are more people feel more involved and they feel more engaged especially during this era this covey period because kobe that's giving us a uh a stain it has given us a mindset and so trying to adapt and you know come out of this is what we are looking to do on the platform what can i offer students on campus honestly i'm a simple person you know i have a simple personality what motivated me was because i wanted to be a voice for my college for my constituency which is the college of engineering and so for me i'm just going to come as i am you know i'm going to be a voice today i'm going to offer my ears off of my voice you know let them know that they actually have a voice that they are able to get their their matters attended to you know if like i said earlier you know i spoke to my colleagues with my classmates and because i felt the same way i was like let me take the boat step and actually be a voice here you know but if on the other hand i was the only one or like you know uh there was no one who actually felt the same i was feeling then maybe i may not have been motivated to you know run for the senate because it was just me but the fact that you know people are going through these things you know it motivated me that okay let me be a voice for them you know i know what you're going through you know this is my third year i've had you know an idea of pre-copied and now like the covered era so like i feel like just being open just being open-minded being willing to listen to their complaints don't just go to become a senator for your personal benefits you know but actually make a difference and be a voice for your people so that is just what i have to offer just my voice you know uh what challenges do i think i'll face next semester definitely the transition you know out of kobe i mean like life was covered uh first of all there is no going back to pre-covered it's it's not possible you know whether i would like it or not kobit has given us a permanent thing that's giving us a mindset take for instance you know prior to kobe when you go to a class and you see a student with a mask on you're like well why are you having a mask and you're not supposed to have that like that is not normal like you know what's going on but now you go to a class and you see a student without a mask and you'd be like okay well you should have a mask on so it has literally flipped our mindset and so being able to reverse that totally is not going to be possible what we can do is to find a way to smoothly transition and that is where the challenge is going to be i mean thankfully vaccines are rolling out you know people are becoming more comfortable but to our effectively transition is going to be a lot of challenge you know it's going to be a big challenge for for students and so that is that is the biggest challenge that i'll be facing next semester uh what else would i like to add well firstly i'd like to thank you for the opportunity to be on this podcast it's it's an honor and uh i just want to let you know people out there that i'm running at the senator because i truly want to make a difference you know i'm a community advisor and i i have residents freshmen you know freshman engineering students who literally struggle with life on campus they are literally um they are literally terrified because they don't know they don't have the experience of what of what an ideal college life should be and so they get this feeling of i can't do this anymore which i mean you won't blame them because this is definitely not the best time to you know be a freshman but you know it's it's an obstacle that we all have to overcome and that is why i really really want to you know make a difference like i said earlier i'm not doing this for my you know personal gain or whatnot but i truly want to impact i want to help my my residents i want to help my colleagues i want to help people coming behind me you know just help people in general and yeah that's all i have hello my name is addie sparks and i am a sociology major with a concentration in criminology and i am running for an arts and science senator position one thing that really made me want to run for senate is currently i am in fyla which is the first year leadership association i am the intern under student body president hunter heck and being an fyla it really shows you what the student senate is like and shows you what student government is and honestly i just fell in love with everything that has to do with student government seeing students helping other students and students having such a big impact on campus i just loved everything about that and that is one of the things that made me want to run for senate one of the goals that i hope to see if i do become a senator is kind of that communication that our door is always open we are always willing and able to hear the student side of things you know we are student government we are the voice of the students on campus and we wouldn't be student government without the students of texas tech and their input and their goals and their hopes and dreams and i really just want my goals are to have that communication between the students and communication between the faculty as well my personal platforms that i am running on is i want to see student organizations within the college of arts and science you know the college of arts and sciences is one of the biggest colleges on campus with the most majors and minors of any other college and yet i feel like it's one of the more underrepresented colleges um the rawls college of business for example has many student organizations within the college itself and i think human sciences even has something very similar and arts and sciences doesn't have this and with it being the biggest college on campus and having the most majors and being the most diverse i really think those student organizations will help our students and help people find their clicks and help people study per se and i just really think that they will help the students overall i also am interested in creating undergraduate research within the college of arts and science as you probably know there is many research opportunities for honors students and there's not that many research opportunities for people not in the honors college and me for example i am not in the honors college but i'm in the arts and science college and i'm extremely interested in research and that's not easy for me to do it's not as accessible as it is if i was an honors student and i find a problem with this you know i think all students regardless if they are in the honors college are interested in research and having a research available for students in the college of arts and sciences i think will prove to be beneficial one thing i can really offer students on campus if i am chosen to be a senator is like i said before communication you know i was a freshman this year during covet 19 it's very hard i mean you wonder if your voice is being heard you wonder if your problems are the same as everybody else's problems and i want to be that person there for students of all kinds freshmen sophomores junior seniors and i really want to just be there and have that open door policy kind of thing and just really talk with our students and see what they want and see what problems they are having and see what things they want to be done because after all student government like i said before is for the students one of the challenges i think we will face next semester even as a whole student body is uncertainty you know each week each day even each month there is uncertainty with covid19 and we don't know what next semester is going to look like we we don't even know what next month is going to look like so i feel like there's definitely that feeling of uncertainty because we don't know if we're going to be in person we don't know if maths are going to be required we don't know if we're all going to be online again so i feel like that's going to be one of the biggest challenges and if we are in person and everything is back to normal you're going to have that challenge of getting back to somewhat of a normal college life because we haven't seen that in over a year i actually am part of a block i'm part of the raider land renewed block and we are running on about four key points and those are affordability diversity equity and inclusion wellness and campus life and going into a little bit more detail about that last one campus life you know as campus life is getting back to normal we want to resume our partnerships with things like limes and raider ride and really just kind of make campus as normal as we can but you know returning to a type of normalcy does not mean return to an absolute normal of what things used to be you know we need to learn our lessons from things that may have gone wrong last year you know we need to learn and grow and not return to an absolute normal but just try to like get back to that college experience and get back to that college life we all know and i feel like that's going to be something that's going to be very important next year as covid is maybe not starting to be as president present and maybe people getting more vaccines and things like that so one last thing i would like to add is to make sure and go and vote for senators and for your executives and voting happens on march 16th and 17th just log on to www.sga.ttu.edu voting opens at 9 a.m and closes at 7 and we would really like to see a greater number of red raiders vote this year and to make sure your voices are being heard and you know vote for those people that are going to listen to you and are going to make you heard and i look forward to the opportunity to represent such an incredible college and university rackham tech um so that was all the candidates that decided to come on to the podcast and we have many more planned coming for the next podcast so we invite all the candidates to come reach out to me at the daily torador and at my email to schedule time to come and record for the last session as like i said all candidates were given the equal opportunity to record for this podcast and then at the end of next podcast we'll say which senators have not reached out to me or declined the offer um that is all the time we have red raiders thank you so much for listening to the political dive be sure to pick up your copy of the daily torador this coming thursday and keep up to date with all things tech on our website dailytorador.com also be sure to interact with us and the rest of the staff on our twitters you're listening to the political dive you're listening to a production of the matador beat you<br><!-- wp:image {"id":1776,"sizeSlug":"large","linkDestination":"none"} -->rn<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img class="wp-image-1776" src="https://en.videoencontexto.com/2021/02/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Episode_2_SGA_Senate_Candidates_Pt_1_GqOXio3v3DI.jpg" alt="Episode 2: SGA Senate Candidates Pt. 1" /></figure>rn<!-- /wp:image -->[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]