The University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) campaign season officially kicked off this morning -- and this year's presidential race features a pair of UPUA veterans facing off against a team of UPUA outsiders.
As for the rest of the 46 total candidates running, there are seven candidates running for six At-Large Representative positions, 17 candidates for 12 Off-Campus positions and six candidates for seven On-Campus positions.
Additionally, of the Academic Representative positions, 10 of the 14 only have one candidate running, and two positions are not being pursued by anyone.
On one presidential ticket: Christian Ragland (junior-political science) for president and Colleen Smith (sophomore-biology) for vice president. The pair currently serves as UPUA Student Life and Diversity Chairman and UPUA Governmental Affairs Chairwoman, respectively.
And on the other: David Adewumi (junior-Spanish) for president and Devin Weakland (freshman-public relations and international studies) for vice president. Neither Adewumi or Weakland are currently involved in UPUA.
Ragland said he is excited for the opportunity to take his leadership to "the next level" as a representative of Penn State students.
"Having two years in UPUA, I laid a great foundation to take the next step in my role as president," he said. "I feel I would be well-equipped to tackle more issues and have more resources to do so in that position."
Smith also cited her history with UPUA as a driving force in motivating her to pursue a higher position within the organization.
"UPUA's been something that's been really important to me since freshman year," Smith said. "I have a lot of pride for this organization as it stands but also a lot of ideas to expand for the future."
But Adewumi -- whose father is a professor and the Vice Provost of Global Programs at Penn State -- said he saw this as an opportunity to give back to a school that he has seen give so much to his family and others across the world.
"I've seen how special Penn State is and how much it has provided a livelihood and opportunities to myself and my family ... this is my opportunity to give back," Adewumi said.
He also said, however, that he wants to make sure that UPUA is dealing with the issues most important to the Penn State student body -- and questioned whether the current elected officials were answering the most critical questions that students have.
And Weakland said she is excited to have the opportunity to try to enact change on these issues for the student body during her time as an undergraduate.
"That would be awesome to see my hard work go through to benefit Penn State," she said.
Current UPUA President Gavin Keirans (senior-business management) will be spending his first campaign season in three years watching from the sidelines instead of participating in the race, but he said he is still excited to see the competition unfold.
"Of course Christian and Colleen have a lot of experience in UPUA, which is a positive -- but it will be interesting to see what David and Devin bring to the table," Keirans said. "I hope that both tickets are able to engage the student body as much as possible."
