Leslie Osborn (senior-advertising) and Mike LaFlam (senior-human development and family studies) think the Undergraduate Student Government should give students more say in University policy making.

Osborn said USG should help students gain positions on the Budget Task Force, the faculty tenure review boards and the Facilities Resource Committee, and more representation on the University Board of Trustees.

She said she would establish a department to address tuition rises and the closed University budget. The candidates proposed a Department of Higher Education Affordability, which would seek student volunteers to write letters to legislators asking for state funding, Osborn said.

Administrators should open the University budget line-by-line, Osborn said, because students have a right to know how their tuition is used.

"If we're paying money to go to school here, we should be able to find out," Osborn said.

She also suggested lobbying legislators in Harrisburg to support an open budget. Legislators should want to see how state funds are allocated at the University because they can only release a limited amount, Osborn said.

Osborn said USG should encourage students to register and vote so legislators would take their requests more seriously.

Osborn proposed that the University build a new University Center, a 24-hour structure including a library, computer lab, study lounges and a snack bar, into Pollock Library. Osborn said the Office of Housing and Food Services and the Center for Academic Computing could redirect some of their funds to the project.

LaFlam said they would like to add a stategic planning policy into the USG bylaws. This would set up a timeline of when USG projects should be completed, LaFlam said, so that future USG administrations could follow up on projects started now.

USG could work with the Association of Residence Hall Students to create more coed housing on campus, Osborn said. LaFlam said coed housing promotes understanding between men and women and could help end problems of sexism, violence and intolerance.

LaFlam said they support including the words "sexual orientation" in the University's non-discrimination policy and that they would weigh their responsibilities to both gay men and lesbians and the ROTC program.

Osborn is executive coordinator of USG and a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority, 3 Stone, and was vice president of the USG senate and a member of the Student Union Board. LaFlam is political co-director of the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Student Alliance, a member of the Forum for Underrepresented Groups and the Mayor's Student Leadership Task Force and was in the former USG Department of Minority Affairs.