Platforms based on UF students' input will be released next week for the two Student Government political parties facing off in spring elections on Feb. 26 and 27.
Members of both parties, Gator and Orange and Blue, said they are shaping their platforms around what students want, but in different ways.
The Gator Party held a four-hour forum Thursday morning for students to talk to its candidates - Kevin Reilly for Student Body president, Yooni Yi for vice president and Paul Drayton for treasurer.
Gator Party chairman Steven Hoffstetter said about 30 students showed up at the Reitz Union for interviews. Hoffstetter said about two-thirds were students who already joined the party as Student Senate candidates during slating on Friday, Monday and Tuesday.
Most students were worried about increased tuition and changes to the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program, but they did not offer specific solution suggestions to SG.
The Gator Party will meet on Sunday to draft a platform to be released next week, Hoffstetter said.
"We're taking it as it comes, and we will definitely get something hammered out," Hoffstetter said. "This was mostly to figure out what students are concerned with."
Yi said she talked to about four students. They were concerned with parking issues, recreation centers and advising appointments.
The Orange and Blue Party's platform will be put on the party's Web site next week so students can revise it themselves. Tommy Jardon, the party's presidential candidate, said the party's platform would work like Wikipedia, an online community encyclopedia anyone can edit.
"Open forums are nice, but keeping promises are even better," Jardon said.
Jardon, who is running with Frank Bracco for vice president and Shea Parrish for treasurer, said students' needs are always changing, and this method would serve students better.
The party would post some initial ideas next week, keep the good ideas that students add and then weed out the bad ones, he said.
Some ideas that top the party's list are bringing online voting to SG elections and changing UF's WebMail system to use Google's e-mail system.
