The executive candidates for the Innovate ticket promise to focus on sustainability, inclusivity, safety and more if elected in this spring’s election.
Political science and screen arts junior Anna Cate Strong and political science junior Gigi Powers announced their candidacy for student-body president and vice president in a campaign ad released Feb. 6. They will be heading the Innovate ticket.
Both Strong and Powers have experience in Student Government.
Strong has been a member of the Student Technology Fee Committee and the Faculty Senate Committee on Enrollment. She’s the director of philanthropy in the SG executive branch and said she ran a successful food drive. She started out in the Freshman Leadership Council upon arriving at LSU and eventually became a student senator.
Powers is the chair of the Student Sustainability Fund Committee and the director of campus affairs and sustainability. She initiated the Light Walk, which brought students around campus to highlight areas that needed more lighting. She began in SG as a senator in spring 2022 and then moved to the executive branch in fall 2022.
Strong and Powers said having experience in senate and the executive branch gave them a better understanding of how both entities operate.
“It actually has been very helpfully to get to understand, the different views, different jobs.” Strong said. “There are kind of different cultures between exec, Senate and college council.”
Strong said their campaign has five pillars: community, inclusivity, communication, sustainability and safety. She said that they are still working on developing specific policies or are waiting to announce them, so no specifics have been revealed yet.
“We think really working on those five, really bringing a lot of policies dealing with those five to the forefront is gonna not only improve student’s day to day life but also make LSU a more holistic experience for all students,” Strong said.
Strong said that these pillars are interlinked with each other, so by improving one they can contribute to the others.
For community, Strong said they want to remove any barriers stopping students from engaging with the broader community. She said this will involve focusing heavily on students’ freshmen and sophomore years.
Powers said they want to make it easier for first year students to find connections and friendships at LSU. She said they wanted to emphasize assisting first-generation students and making SG more inclusive to any student who wants to get involved.
For inclusivity, Strong said they want to open up resources for LGBTQ students and students of color. She said she also wants to make the campus more inclusive to graduate students.
For communication, Strong said they want to improve how SG and administration talks to students and addresses concerns. She said they also want to better communicate what is available to students, which will involve specifically communicating with student organizations.
For sustainability, Powers said there’s a lot of work to be done in this area. She said it’s terrifying how little sustainability efforts there are around campus and that she wants LSU to be a leader in this area.
“My goal, and now our goal, is to make LSU the flagship school of sustainability in the [Southeastern Conference],” Powers said.
Powers said the biggest area LSU can improve its sustainability is in dining.
Powers said the SEC schools broadly rank low in sustainability in comparison with the rest of the country. Powers said LSU is listed at a platinum level assigned by the American Association of Sustainability in Higher Education. She said she wants LSU to reach a gold level.
For safety, Strong said they want to foster a campus where everyone knows they can get help as soon as they need it. She said they want to promote the Shield app, which allows students to contact LSUPD for any assistance they need that may not warrant a 911 call.
Strong said their campaign is being funded by friends, family and themselves. The SG election code caps campaign spending at $4,000.