Future TU launched its campaign for the Temple Student Government on Monday, and the group wants to be known for its platform.
The team is comprised of presidential candidate Ryan Rinaldi, candidate for vice president of services Brittany Boston, and candidate for vice president of external affairs Binh Nguyen.
“I think that, at the end of the day, our platform is what is going to differentiate us from our opponents,” Rinaldi said.
The team’s campaign centers on what they call the “three pillars,” which are serving the student body, uniting the communities and building for the future.
Nguyen, who is majoring in strategic communications, said the first pillar is “the vital, most important, key pillar that we want to hit.”
Under each of the three concepts, Future TU has listed either five or six key points as part of their platform. Some of the topics which they hope to bring up during the debates include combating sexual assault, campus security, transportation, veteran relations and supporting the LGBTQIA community.
While Future TU wants to articulate stances on these issues, they continue to emphasize the prominence of the three pillars.
“Over the next two weeks, we’re going to be talking and spreading the word about those three pillars and all of those points underneath them,” Rinaldi said. “Everything comes back to the three pillars, and everything is kind of encompassed by the three pillars.”
Future TU began when Rinaldi and campaign manager Eric Hamilton decided to launch a campaign six months ago. Boston, who is studying broadcast journalism, and Nguyen were not really friends before they joined the campaign.
“Everybody was picked because they were the best in what they do,” Rinaldi said.
All three members of Future TU tout their leadership experience. Rinaldi was the president of the Temple University Investment Association. Binh ran events for the Delta Zeta sorority as a chair member, and Boston was an Owl Ambassador as well as the vice president of Temple’s chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
Despite their executive histories, no one on the Future TU ticket was involved in TSG this school year. However, the team said it does not believe it will have difficulties working with President Theobald and the administration.
All of the suggestions proposed by Future TU in its platform have “been vetted by the administration and have been considered feasible for us to execute,” Hamilton said. The three-person team has met with five administrators from different departments – including Theobald.
“We have plans, and, most importantly, we’re going to execute them,” Boston said. “A lot of people campaign and then have a lot of great ideas, but we will listen to our fellow students, administration and staff, and actually make things happen.”
The team is quick to indicate that it does not want to revolutionize Temple or TSG.
“I can’t even say that there’s one thing I want to go and change that Ray [Smeriglio, current student body president] did,” Rinaldi, who is majoring in finance, said. “We’ve been going in the right direction.”
Though Rinaldi does not believe Temple is heading down the wrong path, he does believe that Future TU can improve the status of the university.
“We’re going to put Temple in the areas to make sure that we capture national attention, to make sure that we’re on the right direction, to make sure that Temple University is a better place when we leave office come next year,” Rinaldi said.
Debates are set to take place this month, though dates and times have not yet been determined. The election days are March 31 and April 1.
Jack Tomczuk can be reached at jack.tomczuk@temple.edu or on Twitter @JackTomczuk.
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