With Student Government’s spring elections on the horizon, Reveille reporters sat down with the three major presidential and vice presidential candidates to discuss where they stand on important issues facing LSU’s campus. 
Before voting opens Wednesday at 11:59, read what the candidates had to say about implementing diversity, addressing Title IX issues and what makes their campaign stand out. 
Watch the full video footage of each candidates answers on diversity here. 
See how the candidates addressed the University’s Title IX failures here. 

It’s Time 

Title IX 
As the president and co-founder of Tigers Against Sexual Assault (TASA), Cantelli is well-versed in the University’s Title IX policies and where they have failed in the past. 
“I understand why students don’t have trust in the Title IX office,” Cantelli said. “I have a lack of trust in them.” 
She said TASA has been encouraging students to contact STARR in Baton Rouge rather than LSU’s Title IX office to seek support right now. While the University has contracted STARR to redo sexual assault trainings on campus and Cantelli believes that is a strong step, she hopes to see LSU rely more on STARR’s resources and policies in the future. 
She and LeJeune are committed to having candid and recurring conversations with LSU officials regarding sexual misconduct. 
“We have to continue telling [administrators], ‘Look, we don’t trust you right now,'” Cantelli said. “It’s ultimately on them to regain that trust. I think being the student voice and continually reminding them of that is going to make a huge difference.” 
Diversity
Presidential candidate Mia LeJeune and her running mate Angelina Cantelli are clear about one thing: they want to make history. Not only are they the first female duo to run for their positions, but they also have the largest Student Government ticket on record with 114 candidates from all of LSU’s undergraduate and graduate colleges along with the law school. Additionally, 72% of the candidates running with It’s Time are women. 
LeJeune still knows that’s not enough. 
“I am a white woman and Angelina is as well,” LeJeune said. “We can’t ever speak to those experiences.”
For LeJeune and Cantelli, it’s about amplifying the voices of student leaders from different backgrounds and including them in the conversation, rather than speaking for them. 
“I’m very hopeful that by bringing these students into the President’s Office and to the Board of Supervisors, that not only is it going to make Student Government more accountable and transparent, but it’s also going to help us better represent and serve the needs of other students,” LeJeune said. 
What makes them stand out
LeJeune describes It’s Time as a campaign that’s not running on “Lyft or Uber ideas.” 
“We’re actually wanting to enact real, effective policy change on campus,” LeJeune said. 
The campaign has three major policies they aim to work toward if elected: 

• Institutionalizing civic engagement and voter registration on LSU’s campus 
• Expanding mental health services on campus in support of sexual assault victims 
• Campus sustainability 

LeJeune also said that as SG president, she plans to have conversations with state capitol officials to advocate for improved higher education funding. 

UNITY 

In the true spirit of the campaign’s name, presidential candidate Amina Messelhe and vice presidential candidate Preston White combined with the SPARC ticket to form the full Unity ticket. 
Title IX
Messelhe said it’s important for the University to take responsibility for its actions. 
“While we do want to believe in the administration and we do want to believe in Tom Galligan and all these people that we know are trying to be good people, we need their actions to back them up,” Messelhe said. “We need a proper reporting system and also resources for students so they can feel safe, whether it’s from the University administration, LSUPD or the local community.” 
Messelhe noted that the first major protest against LSU’s Title IX allegations in the fall semester drew a large number of participants in comparison to more recent protests.
“Whenever we were at the sit in we were like. . . ‘where is everyone?’ It was really depressing,” Messelhe said.  
She said it is important for students to maintain momentum in order to effectuate real change. 
Diversity
Diversity is one of the pillars of the Unity campaign. As the assistant director of non-traditional students, White said he loves including ‘anyone and everyone’ in Student Government. 
Messelhe said she and White have a unique understanding of equity and inclusion issues, both coming from diverse backgrounds themselves. 
“Preston is Black, Preston’s from out of state,” Messelhe said. “I’m brown, I would be the first woman of color president. All of these things that compound have altered our student experience and we know it alters it for other people.” 
What makes your campaign stand out?
Messelhe said the Unity campaign plans to enact change differently than other tickets in the running.
“We want to hold administrators accountable not in the way most other campaigns want to do where they are going to bully them or use their networks,” Messelhe said. “We know what we’re working with and we’re so informed that we’re going to translate that info to the students so the students are going to constantly hold them accountable.” 

Bowman and Milligan 

Title IX
Vice Presidential candidate Abbie Milligan serves as the SG director of safety and the director of We’re Committed, a campaign against sexual assault within Student Government. She said she has been working with Title IX and advocating for improved sexual assault victim reporting policies in those positions for over a year. 
In her eyes, though, it’s going to “take a while” before students regain trust in the administration and within the Title IX office. 
“I think it’s going to be very important going forward for administration to be as transparent as possible,” Milligan said. 
She also said the Bowman and Milligan campaign plans to do everything within their power to influence administration in their decisions regarding Title IX going forward. 
Diversity
“We want people from every single background,” Bowman said. “We want all of it on our staff. We started on our staff and then went to the ticket as a whole.” 
Bowman said that “the typical ticket” would strive to get a large number of Greek students involved, but that his campaign “strayed away from that.” 
“We tried to get as many diverse individuals as possible, and moving forward if these students win their seats, that will be the starting place where we will make our executive staff, which will always be at the forefront,” Bomwan said. 
Milligan emphasized a goal of being “specific and intentional” with their campaign staff. 
What sets you apart? 
Bowman said the main policies of the Bowman and Milligan campaign are “climate, culture and community.” 
“We weren’t doing the traditional policies like free laundry or we’re going to get solar panels on campus,” Bowman said. “We are really focusing on  truly changing that culture of climate and community. In doing those things, it’s lengthy. It’s going to take that process of changing a whole mindset.” 
Bowman said his campaign aims to be proactive rather than reactive in tackling issues of racism, sexism and sexual misconduct. 
“A lot already has happened,” Bowman said. “At this point, we’re trying to address it before something else happens. I think that’s the main thing that sets us apart. We understand we’re at an intersection about a lot of things.” 
Student Government elections will take place this Wednesday via Tigerlink.