Editor’s note: This story is the first in a five-part series profiling each of the presidential and vice presidential Student Government tickets. The stories will run in alphabetical order based on the presidential candidate’s last name. Student Government campaigns are usually dominated by tickets powered by current and former members of SG. But in the 2009 election season, at least one ticket is focusing on its role as an outsider to University politics.Touting its ability to bridge the cultural divides of a diverse campus, the Unity 2009 campaign has claimed the platform of moving away from an SG run by SG. The ticket is headed by SG presidential candidate Ari Krupkin, political science senior and SG vice presidential candidate Melanie Oubre, mass communication sophomore. Though both candidates have been involved in student organizations and indirectly in SG, neither consider themselves a part of the University establishment.Campaigning under the banner of campus unity, the Krupkin/Oubre ticket has made its primary goal to consolidate different factions of campus life together under one organization.”We feel like there are underrepresented groups on campus,” Krupkin said. “We cannot govern as students with only one voice. We need multiple voices which represent the entire community on a united front.”The Unity ‘09 ticket has drawn a wide variety of supporters from the campus community, including members of both the College Republicans and College Democrats.College Republicans President Chuck Fontenot and the executive board of the College Democrats have both officially endorsed the Unity ‘09 ticket.PROGRAMSWhen developing programs for their potential administration, Krupkin and Oubre said they would focus on issues that would consolidate and streamline campus involvement.To unify student organizations, Oubre said her ticket would create a Student Organization Committee, which would be an extension of SG vice president Shannon Bates’ Orgs2Geaux program. “There are a lot of fresh ideas out there, and we really just have to take the time to listen to them all,” said Brian Holden, who is running for president of the Engineering College Council under the Unity ‘09 ticket.Brian Holden is the son of East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Kip Holden. Though Kip Holden spoke at one of the ticket’s organizational meetings, he did not officially endorse any candidate.The committee, which would consist of about 20 students from different student organizations, would aid organizations with advertising and event planning. The committee would also help student organizations find the funding available to them through SG.”By having a cross sectioning of people from all areas of campus, the committee shows these people can work together to elevate the image of campus,” Oubre said. Krupkin also said he would work with Information Technology Services to make student counselors available online to cut down on hours of waiting and angry students. The Unity ‘09 ticket also plans to change the makeup of student orientations to include an activity fair, which would help incoming freshmen quickly discover how they can get involved on campus and with SG.As part of their proposed class registration reforms, Krupkin and Oubre want to make teacher evaluations public, so students can review them before enrolling in a class. Though Krupkin admitted they may only be able to use “limited evaluations,” he said opening the evaluations would help students choose which classes best fit their learning style.BUDGET CUTS AND FINANCEWith budget cuts looming over whichever ticket is elected to office, potential SG officers have had to put their plans into a tight economic perspective.”We’ll probably stay where we are, but with budget cuts, we’ll probably not be able to do everything we want to do,” Holden said.Though they said they have not had a sufficient chance to study exactly what the proposed $45.1 million budget cuts facing the University might do to their potential administration, Krupkin and Oubre said they would cut burdensome SG programs and reincorporate them into more streamlined systems.Krupkin said he would cut the Organization Relief Funding program, which allocates revenue to student organizations, and leave its processes to the Student Organization Committee.While SG has recently started a program which will allow students to vote on how best to spend $5,000 of their student fees, Oubre said she would rather see that money removed from fee bills if SG doesn’t have a plan for it.”If there are fees we can cut, we’d love to,” said Krupkin. “But I’m not sure that will happen in light of the economic situation.”—-Contact Adam [email protected]