Editor’s note: This is the first in a two part series profiling the candidates for GSB executive offices. Steve Medanic and Andrew Kothenbeutel will be profiled tomorrow.

Two of the candidates for Government of the Student Body executive positions said they will put students before personal politics.

T.J. Schneider and his running mate Joe Darr have chosen to take an active role in university issues. They are running for Government of the Student Body president and vice president.

“I hear students’ concerns all the time,” Darr said. “There’s no better way to mold and shape students’ lives than by being the president or the vice president of the Government of the Student Body.”

The pair is running against Steve Medanic, finance director for GSB, and his running mate Andrew Kothenbeutel, current GSB speaker of the senate.

Schneider said although the two slates are concerned about many of the same issues, they have different styles of leadership. Schneider said he and Darr are more pro-active.

“We want to be able to make changes on campus by being effective leaders for the students,” Schneider said. “I think students will vote for us because we’re a slate that has been extremely active for students in the past and will continue to do so.”

Schneider, director of academic affairs for GSB, said that if he and Darr were elected, “there are many issues we want to actively pursue.”

The candidates’ platforms include many issues they feel will improve the academic climate at Iowa State.

Schneider and Darr plan to implement a university-endorsed Dead Week policy and a separate policy that would create “Reading Days” on campus, study days in which no classes would meet during the Thursday and Friday of Dead Week.

Schneider said he presented the proposal to the dean’s council on March 4.

“They were extremely appreciative that students took on an initiative such as this at Iowa State,” Schneider said. “That was very encouraging news for us.”

There is a chance the policy may be implemented this spring, but it will most likely go into full effect during the fall semester of 2002, he said.

Widespread budget cuts and tuition increases will continue to plague which ever candidates are elected.

“We want to ensure students are receiving the high quality of education they deserve and are paying for,” Schneider said.

GSB members must combine lobbying efforts with student representatives from the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa to fight tuition increases at three Regents institutions, he said.

“As far as GSB’s activism, this is something we can’t let down on,” Schneider said. “The recent budget cuts have been hard for families, hard for students, hard for everyone at this time, especially in Iowa.”

Darr said he and Schneider will make students’ concerns their first priority and put personal politics aside.

“I think that we will continue to act in a manner that will put students’ interests first,” he said.