United Progress (UP) and Delta Upsilon’s (DU) Moose Party will face off in Student Government (SG) elections this week to determine the direction of next year’s SG Cabinet. Following a contentious race last year, this year’s competition for Executive Slate looks relatively uncompetitive as Moose Party traditionally runs a satirical campaign.

Executive Slates are composed of three members, a President, a Vice President for Administration and a Vice President. They run on a shared platform and are elected as a single unit, assuming the top three leadership positions in SG.

United Progress

The United Progress Slate is composed of second-year Tyler Kissinger running for President, third-year Arlin Hill for Vice President for Administration, and third-year Aseal Tineh for Vice President of Student Affairs. Kissinger is currently SG’s Liaison to Community and Government and Tineh serves on College Council as a representative for the class of 2015. Hill has no previous experience on SG.

“I think it’s really important, one of the most important things is student involvement in SG, because I know a lot of the work Student Government does is behind the scenes and a lot of people just are totally unaware that a) SG exists or b) what SG actually does. The people that actually are in SG spend a lot of time doing what they do,” Kissinger said.

UP proposes a range of measures designed to address the needs of the student body.  Their platform proposes conducting a campus climate assessment to gauge community members’ experiences, increasing access to space and funding for RSOs, and adding three new positions to SG: a Chief of Staff, an Assistant Vice President for Finance, and an Assistant Vice President for Equity and Access. They also propose supporting student campaigns by Students for Health Equity (SHE) for a level-one trauma center and the Coalition for Equitable Policing (CEP) for a more transparent UCPD. They further express support for measures to support graduate, low income, first-generation, and disabled students; particularly efforts to make these students feel more welcome on campus.

“I think what we’re trying to do is really radically reorient the ways in which people really understand Student Government. We’re not seeking to just go in and implement all these reform policies, we really want people to believe that Student Government can speak to these issues and is genuinely interested in speaking to these issues that really are affecting our campus community,” said Hill.

Moose Party

Moose Party is composed of second-year Kent Bischoff running for President, second-year Sam Hopkins running for Vice President for Administration, and first-year Owen Grimm running for Vice President for Student Affairs. All three are members of DU and none have prior experience with SG.

“Basically we’re just trying to take the ‘government’ out of the Student Government,” Grimm said.

Moose Party proposes bringing Student Government into a more direct relationship with the student body. Their platform includes abolishing the house system and making housing assignments based on Alcohol Edu results, busing in University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) students to liven up the weekends, and expanding the Mansueto Library to cover the entirety of the University campus. They have also proposed a transportation system called Uber Cart, comprised of golf cart shuttles to campus on weekdays and to and from parties on weekends.

“You could say the seriousness of our platform reflects what we believe the seriousness of Student Government is at this point,” said Bischoff.

For more coverage on SG elections read up on the candidate’s debate. SG Elections will be held Wednesday-Friday 9-5 on Blueprint, which can be accessed through sg.uchicago.edu.