Student Government Presidential Candidate Jonathan Harb and Vice Presidential Candidate Omar Parbhoo want to reach out to students who normally would not vote with their campaign, “L.S.YOU.”
The two candidates said they are running on a “zero-dollar campaign” — with little research on issues because they do not expect to win.
“The way to win in SG is to have the most people passing out paper,” Harb said. “You shouldn’t have to buy your office.”
L.S.You only has a Web site, and it is paid for by advertisements, Harb said. The advertiser offers the free Web space expecting people to visit the site, he said.
Harb said he will stick to his no- money principles, but he realizes they could cost Parbhoo and him the election. Because they don’t expect to win, the candidates have ideas but little research to back them up.
But Harb and Parbhoo said that if they lose, they hope other candidates will use their ideas to improve campus.
“[The campaign] doesn’t have to make sense because we probably won’t win,” Harb said.
But Parbhoo said if he and Harb are lucky enough to win, they want to “make campus more fun.” He said he and Harb want to break out from the traditional SG.
“We offer a different flavor than most of what SG has given us,” Parbhoo said.
Parbhoo said they will set themselves apart from the other candidates by addressing issues that are normally not addressed, including changing the [University Center for Freshman Year], giving student grade incentives and challenging what Parbhoo and Harb call “Chartwells’s monopoly.”
Harb and Parbhoo said UCFY is not beneficial to students who have their majors decided. They said they would try to get students in their particular major’s colleges during their freshman year instead of having certain requirements before students can be admitted.
Parbhoo said he and Harb would “put pressure on the chancellor to change [UCFY].”
The L.S.You ticket would also offer students incentives for good grades, Parbhoo said.
Students with a 4.0 grade point average would be offered a reserved, closer parking spot, Parbhoo and Harb suggested.
To get rid of what Harbo and Parbhoo called Chartwells’ “ridiculous prices” for catering services, they will get a variety of catering companies with better prices to challenge Chartwells’ “monopoly.”
Harb said he and Parbhoo also want to make campus more fun by sponsoring themed days of the week. He said one of their ideas is making “casual Fridays,” a day for students to dress down.
Harb said they want to create programs that are more successful than current SG activities.
SG “spends a lot of wasted money,” Parbhoo said, which is why they want to set an example for future campaigns that money is not needed to run.
Although he and Harb may not win, Parbhoo said they would like to leave a legacy of getting normally uninterested students involved in SG.
“A vote for me is a vote for L.S.YOU,” Harb said, adding that the slogan is “really dumb — that’s why were using it.”