This year’s Student Council presidential campaign will see the first competitive race in two years between second-year College student Abraham Axler, third-year College student Locher Grove and third-year Commerce student Kyle West. The previous two Council presidents — College graduate Eric McDaniel and outgoing fourth-year Engineering student Jalen Ross — ran unopposed.
All three candidates currently serve on Council — Axler acts as the chair of the representative body for the Executive Board, Grove is the co-chair of the Community Affairs Committee and West is the vice president for organizations.
Ahead of the official campaign kickoff — which will occur Thursday after candidates turn in their signed candidate petitions — Axler, Grove and West all echoed similarly big-picture aims about relationship building and plans to make Student Council more accessible.
All candidates agreed their experience is essential to being a successful Council president.
“The student body president is going to be able to form relationships with students and administrators, and those working on his staff, or the executive board, or just the committee in general,” Grove said.
Both Axler and Grove said Council must be able to communicate well with the student body.
“The motto of Student Council is, ‘Your voice is our vision,’ and at the moment, we’re not getting nearly enough voices,” Axler said.
Axler said he hopes to use his campaign as a way to reach out to University students.
“Really it’s not a campaign about me,” Axler said. “It’s a campaign about how I can better serve the students.”
West said he hopes to use the support of his friends to spread his message to the community in a more personalized way. He said a personal approach is key to being an effective Council President.
“There is no such thing anymore as an average U.Va. experience,” West said in an email. “Therefore, the only way the role can succeed in articulating the student voice is to constantly be meeting new people and to constantly be learning.”
Grove also said he looks forward to connecting with the University population through the election.
“It’s going to be a month full of meeting people and working out with all different kinds of individuals what the needs and the concerns of the student body are, learning about those needs and concerns and connecting with groups and people and just learning about the University even more,” Grove said.
West said he would keep Council focused on the needs of the students — a statement echoed by Axler and Grove.
“Committees actually make up a majority of Student Council,” Grove said. “They are the largest population in the Student Council, and their ability to get initiatives and start programs is just unreal.”
Grove said he would focus on allowing the specialists in committees to cater to the student body. Axler said he would change Committee appointments from selection by the Council president to an application process.
“What I want to do is I want to open it up and make an application process, and really solicit applications from groups that have the greatest concerns with whatever that issue is,” Axler said.
The candidates also emphasized the importance of Council being of and for the students.
“The role should never lose sight of trying to improve the student body's experience in even the slightest way no matter the obstacles they may face,” West said.
Axler took note of this as well, saying that Council should be at the forefront of student resources.
“I want to propagate a Student Council in which, if you have a concern, your first place to go is Student Council,” Axler said.
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