The Temple News profiles the two tickets, RUN TEMPLE and Temple Advocating Progress, campaigning for the executive positions of Temple Student Government.
Making up Temple Advocating for Progress’ ticket for Temple Student Government executive officers are David Lopez for TSG student body president, Ofo Ezeugwu for TSG vice president of external affairs and Julian Hamer for vice president of services.
Lopez, a junior political science and criminal justice major and TSG chief of staff, said running for executive office was “something I’ve been thinking about for a while, especially since I saw some things go on in TSG that I didn’t think were making it better.”
Lopez is president of Temple College Democrats, as well as a part-time Owl Ambassador and member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.
Hamer, a junior broadcast journalism major, and Lopez previously worked on the political talk show “We Are the People,” for WHIP Student Radio. Meanwhile, Ezeugwu, a junior entrepreneurship major, and Hamer, both natives of Maryland, met before attending Temple.
“The whole reason, I think, that we think we’re a good team is because we kind of cover different areas of campus,” Lopez said.
Ezeugwu is vice president of marketing for the Entrepreneurial Student Association and vice president of TU Handball Club.
Before running, Ezeugwu had little direct involvement with TSG.
“These guys have been filling me in on things I should definitely know,” Ezeugwu said.
Ezeugwu said he has been attending more TSG meetings recently.
“Attending the meetings, it seems like…it’s kind of a lot of them talking at us,” Ezeugwu said. “There’s a lot that can be done to make it more enjoyable because right now it seems very boring.”
TAP members want to lessen the formality of General Assembly meetings, Lopez said, either by eliminating the routine slideshow presentations or rearranging the room set-up. The ticket’s platform also proposes monthly workshops in place of a General Assembly meeting.
“People are there because they have to, instead of the fact that they actually want to be [there],” Hamer, currently a part of TSG’s local and Community Affairs committee, said.
Hamer is a member of Temple Gospel Ministers, the Campus Recreation Community Services Crew, is treasurer for the Epsilon Delta Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, and is the TSG representative for Delta Sigma Theta and Temple’s Association of Black Journalists.
TAP’s platform outlines measures to appoint student representatives within the schools and colleges to “host monthly round table meetings in order to discuss issues and concerns about their respective school or college.”
“People have problems within their respective schools,” Hamer said. “A lot of times people just think they can get only their student [organization] problem answered in the GA meetings, but we’re there for the individual student as well.”
Lopez said he believes convincing deans of meeting with student representatives will not be difficult, citing the replacement of President Ann Weaver Hart and the hiring of permanent deans as a period of readjustment for the university.
“We need to take that opportunity and put our foot in every single door so that we have more of a voice and they know that we’re here,” he said.
TAP also aims to address permission for student organizations to use the Temple “T” logo for promotional materials and clothing.
“I wear my Temple ‘T’ proudly, no matter where I am…We’re saying, if you’re in an organization that has done a lot, you should be rewarded with this benefit…If it weren’t important then students wouldn’t have been talking about it for the past three years that I’ve been here,” Lopez said.
Ezeugwu has submitted designs with the T for TU Handball Club to campus recreation, while Hamer has processed design submissions while working in the department.
“Our rugby team is a nationally-recognized team, but that team cannot use the logo of the university. They have to make up their own Temple logo,” Hamer said.
“We think at the end of the day, the most important thing is, when you’re meeting with members of the administration you can’t forget who you are and where you come from,” Lopez said. “We’re not going to walk into a [Board of Trustees] meeting where it’s supposed to be business-professional and lose ourselves dressed in suits and ties. We’re still students.”
For more information go to https://www.tapfortsg.com/.
Amelia Brust can be reached at abrust@temple.edu.
*For a personal profile on student-body presidential candidate David Lopez, flip to page 7.
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