Political communication junior Byron Hansley and biological sciences junior Amber Salone are running for student-body president and vice president under the Inspire ticket.

Hansley said their religious faith was what motivated them to run. He said they aim to make an impact, regardless of whether they win or lose, and that he wants his campaign to inspire people to make changes around LSU’s campus.

“This is not a campaign,” Hansley said. “This is a movement.”

Hansley said he considers his campaign a movement because they’ve already been doing work around campus and aim to continue that work regardless of the election’s outcome.

Salone said her and Hansley work as one unit. Any decision they make will be done cooperatively, she said. 

“Me and Byron, we work as one. Everything we ever do is a collective decision,” Salone said. “We believe in each other equally.”

Hansley said he began his time in Student Government on the Freshman Leadership Council. He serves now as the director of finance for the executive branch of SG.  

Hansley has other roles on campus. He’s the training associate chair of LSU Ambassadors, the vice president of the African American Cultural Center Ambassadors. He’s also the vice president and social action and service chair of the Iota Tau chapter of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity and is a President Millennial Scholar.

Hansley also served as the student ex officio on the A.P. Tureaud Sr. Black Alumni chapter board, where he said he represented the interests of underrepresented students. 

Salone also got her start in SG on the Freshman Leadership Council. She was the assistant director of the community relations department of the executive branch during her sophomore year. She now serves as the director of diversity in the executive branch.

Salone is also the associate overall chair of LSU Ambassadors and is the internal events chair of the Black Women Empowerment Initiative. She’s also involved in the NAACP, the Kollective and Dance Marathon.

Hansley said their mission statement is to “foster a sense of community that will inspire growth with innovative aspirations, to break barriers while building a brighter future.”

The pair aims to focus on safety, mental health and wellbeing and finding a sense of campus community.

“You can come to this campus, and you can say you’re fine, and you can act like you’re fine, but you’re really not, so it’s really important to have people there when you need people there,” Salone said.

Salone said finding community is critical to student success at LSU. She said when she came to LSU originally, she had a difficult time finding a community.

“There’s a place for everybody here on this campus,” Salone said.

Hansley said one of the ideas they had to foster community would be to create an involvement questionnaire, which would be a list of various questions pertaining to students’ interests. Based on students’ responses, they will be matched with organizations.

Salone said there used to be a program called “Let’s Talk,” where students could go talk to people about their issues at stations around campus. She said often it can take a long time to set up an appointment with a therapist, whereas with this program students can get attention immediately.

Salone said they would like to revive this program. There would be professional counselors at the Let’s Talk stations for students to speak to, Hansley said.

Salone said they want to have open communication with students so they can work with the executive branch to make changes around campus or to bring up their concerns.

Hansley said they will be emailing every organization on campus with information about SG so it will be easier to request resources or communicate what they would like to see.

Hansley said they’re funding their campaign through friends and family. The SG election code caps campaign spending at $4,000.