LSU Student Government presidential candidate Mi’Kel Granville and vice presidential candidate Sophia Pollman are running on the “Envison” ticket and aim to be agents for change.
Broadcast journalism junior Sophia Pollman has never been involved with Student Government, primarily because she had never heard of it until a year ago. This is political science junior Mi’Kel Granville’s third year in SG. He originally got involved because he wanted to leave an impact, and he was his high school’s student body president.
The pair believes having one candidate not involved in SG will be beneficial because it gives them a different outlook.
“Having my perspective of students not in Student Government is going to bring a different change to the administration and a different outlook of what’s really going on in the heart of our campus, not just the usual demographics that are always met each year,” Pollman said.
70% of Granville and Pollman’s campaign staff are not a part of SG. The pair included students from all different backgrounds in an attempt to show that students don’t have to be in SG to be great leaders.
“We’re trying to stress that Student Government is traditionally an [exclusive] group. We want to make sure it’s [inclusive], and people have a voice,” Granville said. “We’re so unique, and unique is power.”
Pollman feels that completing their many initiatives is highly possible because they get the opportunity to work with University administration. She predicts some initiatives may be more difficult to accomplish than others because of funding.
“A lot of our initiatives are us continuing to raise our voices and let the administration know these are problems on campus,” Pollman said. “That’s the biggest step, raising your voice.”
If Pollman could only complete one initiative, she would choose to make LSU ADA compliant by the end of next year. She is passionate about this because she has had the opportunity to work with a lot of the visually impaired students on campus, and the University is one of the only SEC schools that is not ADA compliant.
“LSU is a top notch university, and it blows my mind that we don’t have all the resources needed for those students” Pollman said.
The most important initiative to Granville is bringing back the president’s cabinet. The president’s cabinet unites the presidents of all student organizations to let students know they are all working together.
When Granville first approached Pollman with the idea to run, she was skeptical because she was still not sure what SG was. She eventually accepted after Granville explained he wanted a running mate outside of SG that could help him reach different demographics.
“I initially decided to run after seeing everything the school had to offer and everything it lacked,” Granville said. “With this campaign we bring that different perspective and dynamic, and that’s why I reached out to Sophia, to bring a new perspective.”
Voting will take place on Tigerlink all day March 9.
