New ticket to push for campus involvement

Pledging to focus on the students and their needs, the Imagine ticket announced its candidacy forthe IU Student Association election Thursday.\nExecutive candidates are senior Sidney Bosley, president; sophomore Benjamin Lewis, vice president for Congress; senior Dietrich Willke, vice president for administration; and junior Johnathan Goo, treasurer.\n"We want students to imagine what student government can do for them, how we can serve them," Bosley said.\nMembers said they want to set realistic goals for the residence halls, the greek system, off-campus students and graduate students. They said they hope to build alliances with student groups and organizations.\n"We are meeting and talking to people to see what they want," Bosley said. "We are building our platform as we go along."\nMaking a difference in how student government is run is another important issue for the Imagine ticket, the candidates said. The group hopes to increase student awareness and involvement in IUSA.\n"We want to take a different approach to IUSA," said graduate student Mike Fowler, campaign manager. "We are going to run a different campaign, and we are going to run IUSA differently."\nThe group filed for candidacy Thursday, the day applications were due, because they wanted to develop a clear vision of what they wanted before they filed, Bosley said.\n"We knew that if were going to do this, we wanted to do it right," Goo said.\nThe group is taking an altered approach to the election with its strategy, the candidates said. The ticket did not name a full congressional slate, which is typical of most tickets. \nThe group members said this is because they want everyone on the ticket to be 100 percent behind the ticket, and said it is impossible to find enough students with that kind of support for all the tickets. \nThe 32 vacancies in the current Congress, Fowler said, show those people did not really believe in the ticket that won last year. He said everyone on the Imagine ticket supports the ticket and its objectives. \nThere are three congressional candidates on the ticket -- sophomore Neil Bahri, junior Richard Hinshaw and freshman Mark Waligora, and there will be a number of write-in candidates, Fowler said. The group plans to use its candidates' experiences from many different facets of IU, including the residence halls, greek system and a variety of student groups to help members better represent students, the candidates said.\n"We have experience all around," Fowler said. "This varied experience is a good combination."\nThe group said they also brings a will to make changes in IUSA.\n"We have the passion to make a difference," Goo said.\nAs the election approaches, the group plans to be more specific with its platform, Bosley said. Group members said they will focus their campaign on supporting the IUSA creed, "we stand for students"