The campaign for next year’s University of Iowa Student Government members has begun.

Three tickets kicked off their campaigns March 24 at Iowa City restaurants: Inspire UI, Ignite Iowa, and UI Charge.

Voting for the 2019-2020 UISG members will be April 3 and 4.

Inspire UI — Alexia Sanchez and Madhuri Belkale

The Inspire UI campaign seeks to bring together student voices across campus, led by Alexia Sanchez and Madhuri Belkale as presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

The campaign kicked off with an event at Melk on March 24. City Councilor Mazahir Salih and UISG Sen. Caleb Smith introduced Sanchez and Belkale.

Sanchez and Belkale, both third-year students, serve as UISG senators. Sanchez has been a part of UISG for three years, currently as Student Life Committee chair. Belkale is completing her first semester as a senator.

Twenty students are running for UISG positions with Inspire UI.

“We have a really great team,” Sanchez said. “We have a variety of people who have been in the organization for a long time and new faces.”

Sanchez and Belkale highlighted the establishment of a Latinx Living Learning Community and expanding Iowa City’s community ID program as part of their platform.

Belkale said Inspire UI seeks to lead with sustainable growth and transparency.

Sanchez said she focuses on the mindset of collective wisdom in representing students.

“We’re just two people; we’re just a group of 20 members,” Sanchez said. ““We’re not going to know all of the solutions or issues on campus, but we definitely wanted to get as many voices in that conversation to create our platform.”  

Ignite Iowa — Noel Mills and Sarah Henry

Noel Mills and Sarah Henry announced their UISG presidential and vice presidential bid on March 24 at the Mill, running on the Ignite Iowa ticket.

Mills has served three years on UISG, most recently filling the role of director of finance.

Mills and Henry said the core elements of Ignite Iowa are financial, social, and environmental sustainability.

“I think those three pillars stand out to us as really important, because if you don’t have those things, it’s hard to succeed,” Henry said.

Mills said her previous experience of interacting with student organizations as part of UISG motivated her to run for president.

“This year as being director of finance, I have seen how hard student orgs work,” Mills said. “They work so hard to really be the heartbeat of campus. They are what it means to be a Hawkeye. I want to give back to them.”

Henry has been a part of UISG for two years and works as a resident assistant.

“I’m an RA on campus, so that’s a really good way to see student issues and the things people struggle with every day,” Henry said. “It’s a really good way to see what students need, so that was a big motivation to get involved in UISG in general.”

Mills and Henry said the party hopes to focus on making students’ lives better.

“It’s not about the marketing or the social media,” Mills said. “It’s not about the shallow stuff. It’s about how you’re changing people’s lives.”

UI Charge — Dady Mansaray and Adiu Arou

UI senior Dady Mansaray kicked off his campaign for UISG president as leader of the UI Charge Party on March 24 at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Mansaray’s running mate is UI junior Adiu Arou, a transfer student from Marshalltown.

Mansaray, a current UISG senator who also participates in a number of other student organizations, including Dance Marathon, Black Student Union, and On Iowa, said being ingrained in the community inspired him to take a community-centric approach.

A lack of transparency and information from UISG was one of Mansaray’s issues that he said UI Charge would address. He said information such as UISG initiatives, as well as occurrences such as open Senate seats, are currently known mostly by students who have relationships with UISG members.

Some of the solutions he proposed included bringing back biweekly town-hall meetings so UISG can hear from the students, weekly video updates from UISG, and other regular social events.

Mansaray also addressed tuition rates and said he wants to bring more UI students to Hawkeye Caucus in the spring to tell their stories to Iowa state legislators.

Arou said an initiative she wants to bring to the table is for UI transfer students to ease their transition to the University of Iowa.

“You all are truly valued, and we want you to be a part of the conversation,” Mansaray said.