Executive TSG tickets declare campaigns

Two groups running TSG were revealed at yesterday’s General Assembly meeting.

Temple Student Government executive nominations addressed the General Assembly at the end of the meeting yesterday, March 19.

The Run Temple ticket includes current TSG Deputy Chief of Staff Brandon Rey Ramirez for student body president, Ruturaj Rana for vice president of services and Jaimee Swift for vice president of external affairs.

“We’ve got a lot of different problems here at Temple University on this campus. We’ve got problems with worksite segregation, how we hired workers for the 20/20 program,” Ramirez said. “We have a lot of issues with the Board of Trustees. These are issues that the Temple Student Government has to be sure will be taken up.”

The Temple Advocating for Progress ticket includes current TSG Chief of Staff David Lopez for student body president, with Julian Hamer for vice president of services and Ofo Ezeugwu for vice president of external affairs.

“We find it extremely important that students take advantage to tap into every single opportunity at this university,” Lopez said. “Opportunity is the most important thing and we need to take advantage of that…but our university has a problem with making sure that students know how to go about finding it.”

As of midnight, March 20, the teams were able to launch their campaign websites and begin using their social media pages to promote their platforms. TSG Elections Commissioner Shanee Satchell said teams are prohibited from using Temple trademarks on their sites or social networking pages, as it pertains to TSG elections.

Satchell added that teams are prohibited from using “@temple.edu” emails for campaign purposes and said teams should post links to voting pages through their campaign sites.

“They should mention TSG more so than the university,” Satchell said.

The first debate for executive candidates will be on March 26, with a second, more informal debate on April 2. Elections for the candidates will take place April 3 and 4.

Nominations for General Assembly directors will be announced on April 9, followed by nominees’ speeches and voting on April 16.

TSG hosted guest speakers Richard M. Englert, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, and Ken Lawrence, senior vice president for government, community and public affairs at the General Assembly meeting.

While Lawrence reminded the assembly about Cherry and White Day on March 27 in Harrisburg and Englert spoke primarily about the university’s restructuring proposals, as well as results of the general education student survey conducted in January.

The survey, created in part by Zack Groff, TSG director of academic affairs, was sent to 4,000 students, asking for feedback on the program’s performance. Englert said about 800 responded, which he called a “great response rate.”

“When you participate in these kinds of surveys, we really do listen,” Englert said.

Englert said Peter Jones, senior vice provost of undergraduate studies, has yet to begin analyzing the survey results.

Starting this summer, the university will post instructor evaluation forms for students online rather than hand out paper copies in class, Englert said.

He said that between paper and digital student surveys, “generally the results are about the same.”

The General Assembly asked Englert questions regarding evaluations and other restructuring measures by the university.

Ari Jones, a sophomore neuroscience major, asked Englert how students could have more representation in administrative decisions, citing TSG Student Body President Colin Saltry’s presence as the sole student on the Presidential Search Committee.

“Work through student affairs, looking for those opportunities that you think are important to participate in…I hear all the time from Dr. [Stephanie] Ives and Dr. [Theresa] Powell about ‘we need students,’” Englert said.

Hamer, a junior broadcast, telecommunications and mass media major, asked Englert about rumored plans to separate the School of Communications and Theater into separate schools and colleges.

“The programs stay the same,” if the proposals are undertaken, Englert said. “Faculty the same, degrees the same, courses the same. The question is how to best organize at the higher levels, which are the school and college levels.”

Amelia Brust can be reached at abrust@temple.edu.