New duo makes bid for Senate president
The previously uncontested race for President of the Student Association is heating up.
Sophomore Greg Popham and Junior Dylan Phillips are running for president and vice president of the Student Association, respectively.
Popham said the two decided to run after learning junior Aaron Malin and Ryan Gordon were running unopposed in a News36 broadcast Tuesday night. The two obtained the 200 petition signatures required to be on the ballot the next day.
Phillips said they attended the Student Senate-sponsored All-Student meeting last week, where the role of the student body in the current budget crisis was discussed.
“That had got me thinking, ‘What can we do to help improve our university or at least have an impact on it?’ Because so many people just pay tuition, stay in the dorms, take the classes — that’s all they do,” he said.
Popham said one of his biggest goals if elected would be to personalize Student Senate and make it more accessible to the student body. He said that when he was obtaining the signatures, many students did not know much about student government and what it does.
Popham said the All-Student meeting was an example of Senate not effectively communicating with the student body because it was so poorly attended.
“I don’t mind going door-to-door and talking to individual people about what their issues are,” he said. “That’s what I think the student government needs to do — go to the people, not try and get the people to come to them.”
To generate revenue and help reduce deficits in Truman’s budget, Phillips said he would work with University President Troy Paino about new ideas, such as persuading companies like Pepsi or Coca-Cola to sponsor athletic programs. He said money usually allocated to the Athletic Department could be redirected to Truman’s general funding.
The campaign’s only opponents, Malin and Gordon, said they are excited to run against other students.
“We’re really happy that more people are showing interest in Senate,” Malin said. “The more candidates there are, the more choices students have, and the more choices students have, the better.”
Popham and Phillips said they will not run as any party affiliate.
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