SESP juniors Izzy Dobbel and Adam Davies on Monday announced their candidacy for Associated Student Government President and Executive Vice President, respectively. The pair are currently running uncontested, though the candidacy announcement period will run until Tuesday night.

The last time a candidate ran unopposed was 2017.

Dobbel is the former vice president of A-status finances. During her term, she spearheaded the ASG response to the University budget crisis, in which approximately $26,000 was allocated to affected groups, and led an overhaul of the student group funding system, which replaced the current A- and B-status division with a five-tiered, event-based system. She also implemented the acceptance of Venmo as a form of payment for events put on by certain student groups.

Davies is the current Secretary for Men Against Rape and Sexual Assault and serves on the Gender Queer, Non-Binary, Transgender Task Force, which was founded in part due to Davies’ work within the University.

Davies also led a protest against Sigma Alpha Epsilon, a fraternity on campus, following multiple reports of alleged sexual assaults and druggings at the fraternity house and worked to increase the number of gender-open bathrooms on campus during their time as the Rainbow Alliance senator within ASG.

“Our overwhelming theme is finding ways to bring justice and a voice to people who are marginalized on campus,” Davies said. “That could be space allocation for dance groups or a house for LGBTQ students or course affordability so that everyone can take the courses they need to take on campus.”

Their campaign will focus on three pillars: health, community and academics, Dobbel said. The goal, Dobbel explained, is “righting the wrongs” that exist within all the University’s institutions and achieving justice for marginalized students within each of the campaign’s three categories. In line with those intentions, the campaign’s slogan is open-ended: “_______ for justice.”

Dobbel said she became focused on issues of marginalization after witnessing the various ways in which ASG and the University perpetuate inequality during her three years of involvement in ASG.

“Systematically, there a lot of ways ASG and the University work against certain communities,” Dobbel said. “My sophomore year, I sat on the funding reform committee, and so I really learned that (how student groups were funded) was completely regressive.”

Though it is likely the election will remain uncontested, Dobbel, Davies and Henry Molnar, their campaign manager, are not treating it that way. Already, the candidates have met with dozens of different student groups to discuss what changes students and student groups would like to see.

They also plan to use social media and engage with community members in-person to ensure students remain informed about what their student government is and will be doing.

“We’re by no means treating this like an uncontested election,” Molnar said. “We’re still very passionate and we’re still trying to make sure that we are as engaged with the student body as possible and not just taking this election for granted.”

Previous elections that were contested have sometimes devolved toward the use of negative rhetoric. Last year’s election, for example, saw competing Letters to the Editor in The Daily and multiple ASG code violations.

One benefit of an uncontested election, Dobbel said, is that rhetoric can remain positive and both candidates and students can focus on the policies.

“We are not going to burden ourselves with ripping each other apart and pitting ASG against ASG or pitting students against students,” Dobbel said. “It’s just continuing to organize together.”  

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