The Undergraduate Student Government election season is officially underway and this year, four candidates will be vying for the presidential position.

The four candidates and their running mates include: Carina Defferrire and Pat Scanlan; Mike King and Lori Pennay; Erich May and April Campbell; Matt Thomas and Joy Brown.

Defferrire, Latino caucus president, and Scanlan, vice president of Penn State University Veterans Organization, said they want to provide a stronger voice for all students and to involve all types of students in USG.

"We're not interested in building resumes. What we're interested in is having true representation to all students of Penn State," said Scanlan.

Defferrire and Scanlan named USG Centre Halls Senator Gaylin Vogel as their campaign manager. Scanlan said they have eight or nine people working on the campaign now, but expect many more.

The Defferrire-Scanlan platform includes working on student parking as well as addressing the lack of attendants and end-of-the-semester overcrowding in the computer labs.

King, USG Senate president, and running mate Pennay, who works on USG student lobbying, are aiming to "serve the students first."

King said there are "thirty very talented individuals" working on a core committee of the King-Pennay campaign, but added there will be many more overall. He said everybody involved has equal input so no campaign manager will be named.

The King-Pennay platform focuses on providing services students can see daily, he said.

"The way I look at it, not enough people know what USG is or what we do," King said, adding, "we want to make tangible benefits for the everyday life of students."

Some of these services include academic peer advising, a tutoring network and the addition of independent franchises to the HUB -- Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, for example -- which will supplement the HUB Eateries, he said.

May, former USG Academic Assembly president, said there are more than 100 people working on his campaign, including Tom Dymek, former administrative president of the Interfraternity Council, as their campaign manager.

May said he and Campbell (junior-Spanish) will concentrate on the basic needs of quality student life, such as transportation and safety, improving facilities, such as the HUB and libraries, and improving academic advising.

"April and I believe good hearts and good people are more important to improving the quality of student life than flow charts and chains of command," May said.

The major part of the May-Campbell platform is to improve student outreach by conducting surveys each semester to ensure USG is doing projects that "truly reflect" the interests of the student body, May said.

Thomas, journalism and English majors, and Brown, an accounting major, were unavailable for comment.

Now that the candidates have completed petitions and come up with platforms, they will begin the campaigning process. For the next two and a half weeks each will present their views to the students and debate the issues until election day -- March 30.