TSG campaigns draw in student org endorsements

Elections season is in full swing, and each team has announced its endorsements from various student organizations.

Several of the campaigns’ endorsements came from student organizations whose members are participants in the campaigns.

VoiceTU has 55 endorsements including:

• Freely Magazine
• The International Student Association
• The Muslim Student Association

IgniteTU has 25 endorsements including:

• Kappa Sigma
• Pakistani Students Association
• Defend Our Future Temple

Campaigns are allowed to be endorsed by an organization that has a campaign member on its executive board, as stated by the elections code.

Nine of VoiceTU’s endorsements come from organizations where campaign team members are also executive board members. These include Progressive NAACP, where Communications Director Breaa Gillette is the president; South Asian Student Society, where Almas Ayaz, vice president of services candidate, is president; Black Student Union, where Strategist Lauren Smith is vice president and the Asociación de Estudiantes Latinos, where Campaign Manager Meztli Cardoso is president. Additionally, Temple College Democrats, Temple College Republicans, Uzuri Dance, By Any Means Necessary Dance Company, Temple University Philippine American Council, and Delta Sigma Theta have campaign members on their executive board.

Six of IgniteTU’s endorsements have campaign members on an executive board. Presidential candidate Gadi Zimmerman is president of Challah for Hunger, and Communications Director Sarah Madaus is president of Temple’s chapter of Her Campus. Campaign members are also on the executive boards of Camp Kesem, Let’s Bake TU!, InMotion Dance and DMAX Club.

Members of the two campaigns said they solicit endorsements by presenting all three campaign platforms — before UniteTU withdrew on Monday. Then, the student organizations vote to endorse a team.

“At the end of the day, it’s voting,” Jacob Kurtz, a member of the operations team for VoiceTU said. “We want people to vote for us. And if there’s back-door dealing, it’s unlikely people in those [organizations] will vote for us. We have to be transparent.”

Marissa Martini, the campaign manager for IgniteTU, is also the vice president of Student Activists Against Sexual Assault, and she said her organization chose not to endorse IgniteTU.

“I was a big part in that decision,” she added. “We believe we should support anyone who wants to further sexual assault prevention initiatives, and all three platforms include that.”

Martini said IgniteTU is especially appreciative of an endorsement from Camp Kesem, a college student-run summer camp for children affected by a parent’s battle with cancer that opened a Temple chapter last year.

“Part of our platform is to empower organizations, especially small new organizations,” she said. “It was really meaningful to know that they hear us and that they want to support us in the same way we want to support them.”

Kurtz said an endorsement from the International Students Association was meaningful to VoiceTU.

“Our platform is one of the only ones that has something for international students,” Kurtz said. “When you get an endorsement and it’s because a person tells you, ‘It’s ‘because I saw myself in your platform,’ it’s very exciting for us because we were able to make them a priority on our platform.”

No endorsement gifts — like money, items or campaign space — have been made to any team.

Voting will take place on Wednesday and Thursday. Winners of the 2018-19 TSG elections will be announced on Friday at noon in The Reel.