USG presidential and vice presidential candidates discuss roles of student groups

Editor's Note: This is the third story in an eight-part series on how the Undergraduate Student Government presidential and vice presidential candidates would deal with specific issues. This story focuses on relations with student organizations.

With more than 400 student organizations at the University Park campus, the Undergraduate Student Government can't please all of them.

BOWSER and WILDERS

USG must try harder to get involved with students on campus, Wesley Bowser said.

"I really want to get individuals on campus -- in a joint effort with USG -- more familiar with USG itself and other groups existing on campus," he said. "The USG needs to do what it can to help out any specific organization. No group should think that if they went to USG, they would be turned away," he said.

COVENER and NIGHTINGALE

The Council of Commonwealth Student Government's lobbying needs to be done on a greater scale and should be funded by the Student Organization Budget Committee, Jason Covener said.

"As government aid goes down and down, the amount of tuition has gone up about the same amount," he said. "The administration has been lobbying very weakly as of late, and the longer this trend continues, the more we're going to have to pay on our semester bills."

Individual residence area governments should work in conjunction with USG more than they do now, Covener said.

DESMOND and POLK

Anyone who wants to lobby should be encouraged to do so, Jaime Desmond said. USG and CCSG should work together to encourage any student who wants to get involved. CCSG has a definite advantage, Desmond said, because they get in touch with more people across the state, and they can reach more people than USG.

When working with other organizations, both Desmond and John Polk are very supportive of USG's efforts to co-sponsor events on campus, she said.

"USG took a nice first step when it created the multicultural affairs forum because USG had a chance to interact with all the minority student organizations," she said.

FAKE and BARRON

Thane Fake, former Student Government Association president at York Campus, said USG traditionally has not gotten very involved with CCSG and its lobbying efforts. These two organizations should work together, Fake said, to establish continuity in student government lobbying.

"I took a very active role as president at York Campus," he said. "I'm very used to a more hands-on approach in the role of student government, and there's no reason not to have that here."

LANDSBERG and BARBE

Meeting with the leaders of other student organizations would be the first step in improving relations for Michael Landsberg and Brent Barbe. However, the ticket's support is not coming from the executive student organizations so Landsberg said he is more concerned with getting in touch with average students like himself and Barbe.

"It would be a priority to work with them," Landsberg said. "But, as opposed to leaders in the past, it is also a priority to meet with the regular students because that's what Brent and I are."

LOCCARINI and PIRROTTA

Local issues should come before CCSG involvement, Darin Loccarini said.

"As far as CCSG, that's important stuff, but not as important as University Park," he said. "We've got to get things going here. You've got to take care of things at home first."

Organizations are an integral part of the University, Loccarini said, but it is important to remember that the majority of the student population are not members of any organization.

LUBKEMANN and KRAMER

Making students more aware of the different University organizations is one of David Lubkemann and Eryn Kramer's main goals, Lubkemann said.

"We feel there are a lot of valuable student organizations," he said. "We want to publicize these organizations. We're here to steer the students. They might as well know what is at their disposal."

It is also important that organizations make themselves known to students and USG, Lubkemann said.

RUMMEL and CIESLA

Including more students in lobbying efforts will be a main goal behind the campaign of Blaine Rummel and Kendra Ciesla.

"With rising tuition that effects all of us, lobbying will be a priority," he said. "One thing we are looking to do in cooperation with CCSG, if elected we will be going out to students. What we need to do is actually take the phone to the students. Let's have a cellular phone campaign."

SAUR and ROBBINS

With the goal of lowering tuition, Hank Saur said lobbying should not be limited to USG and CCSG. Every organization should "get rallied behind the cause to give them hell in Harrisburg."

"The overall goal of USG is to bring unity between all student organizations, to celebrate our individual cultures, religions, backgrounds, ethnicities, and also to celebrate our similarities as students," he said.