Alex Marques took a red piece of chalk and bent down to write "tabling registration easier" on a chalkboard to help generate ideas for the upcoming UF Student Government Fall Elections.
The UF mechanical engineering junior wanted to bring up the issues he’s faced while trying to reserve a table for his club Humans vs. Zombies. The 20-year-old said it takes about a month to get a table.
Access Party members and Impact Party members on Turlington Plaza and the Reitz North Lawn asked students for their ideas during platform generation. Fall SG elections will elect 50 senators, based on students’ residency. Former majority party, Swamp Party, did not register to run candidates.
Students should be able to use a table if it hasn’t been reserved by another club, Marques said.
"It’s a lengthy process to get permission for tabling," he said.
Impact did platform generation for two days because of the amount of ideas it received from the Student Body, said Impact Party president Chris Boyett.
"We think we have a pretty good idea of what students want," he said.
There is no date set for the release of Impact’s platform, he said.
Kody Thompson, 18, an Impact candidate for District D, said he wanted to talk to students in his district. Students told him they wanted new bus routes and more buses running to decrease wait times.
"I know for a fact that I wake up earlier for the bus," the freshman health sciences major said. "We’re going to do our best to make it most convenient."
Access Party also did platform generation.
"Right now, it’s the beginning of the campaign, and we just want to kick off," said Access Party president Kalyani Hawaldar.
Access has been using its website, along with notepads, to generate ideas, she said.
New students have been telling Access they want to see online voting as part of its platform.
Jacquelyn Hosa, 20, an Access candidate for District C, said she wanted to get students’ input on what they want.
"People that live off-campus want to expand SNAP to off campus," the UF sociology sophomore said.
Taylor McConville, 19, wrote on Access’s notepad "more wifi in the stadium."
The lack of signal made it difficult to find her friends at the East Carolina football game last weekend, she said. This could potentially be a safety issue.
"Even the data was really bad," the architecture junior said. "If you get lost then you can’t text anyone."
Contact Caitlin Ostroff at costroff@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @ceostroff
Maggie Patterson writes down her suggestions for how to improve campus life on a large notepad held by Access Party member Antony Darce.
22-year-old Wesley Hamlin, a UF material sciences senior, talks to Impact party candidates, Carrie Wilkey, 18, a UF telecommunications freshman and Jackie Phillips, 19, a UF family, youth and community sciences sophomore outside the Reitz Union Tuesday afternoon. Hamlin said he votes every semester, usually against Swamp party.
