With campaign platforms ranging from promoting student opportunities to affordable living to empowering students, the three candidates running for vice president of the student body will face off at 6 p.m. Tuesday evening.

Get to know the six individuals who want to represent the voices of Iowa State University’s undergraduate students.

Candidates:

Emily Roberts, a senior majoring in chemical engineering, is running for president with Jennifer Holliday, a junior triple majoring in agricultural studies, journalism and international agriculture, slated as her vice president.

Both Roberts and Holliday have been involved with Student Government since they were freshmen.

Kit Clayburn, a senior double majoring in animal ecology and biology, is running for president with Ella Slade, a junior majoring in journalism, slated as his vice president.

Clayburn has been involved with Student Government since he was a freshman and Slade since she was a sophomore.

Rebecka Larson, a senior majoring in agricultural policy, is running for president with Arilyn Tegtmeier-Oatman, a senior majoring in global resource systems.

Larson has been involved with Student Government for 2 years, serving one as a legislator ambassador and one as an inter-residence hall senator. Tegtmeier-Oatman was involved with Student Government for one semester as a member of the diversity, equity and inclusion committee.

Why did you two decide to run?

Clayburn said he decided to run because he feels as though he is the best person to be the glue between the student body and administration.

“In my past experiences, being on the diversity inclusion committee and also being on finance committee, I kind of have seen what people and students want on campus,” Clayburn said. “I think having that experience, having those uncomfortable conversations with people […] I kind of think that I have a scope of what the student body wants.”

Slade said as a student studying journalism, she has naturally taken to finding out how Student Government works, which she said empowers her as a potential leader.

“I really want to take the opportunity to sort of bridge the gap between the students and Student Government and also gaps within the Senate,” Slade said. “I think that there’s a lot more collaboration that could be going on between the general body and the Senate as a whole.“

Larson and Tegtmeier-Oatman have been planning to run for president and vice president since their freshman year, which they said originally started off as a joke. They said after serving in leadership roles on and off campus, they believed they were equipped to hand the tasks of president and vice president.

“It did kind of become less of a joke when we started realizing some issues or some things that we really wanted to resolve and felt Student Government would be a good avenue to do so,” Tegtmeier-Oatman said. “So then, this year we kind of made it official.”

Roberts said she decided to run so she could return the power of Student Government to the students.

“This is our campus; I always say it should be for each and every student– that was why I decided to run,” Roberts said. “I love Iowa State so much, and I found my own home, my own community [and] I want to ensure that every student at Iowa State’s finding that.”

Holliday said while she’s been involved with Student Government, she has been able to see the impact the organization has on all students– past and present. She said she wants to continue that trend of impact and wants to help fill the gaps she sees.

“I believe we need to be able to advocate for that more and help our students understand all of the resources they have because we have numerous resources that go unused by the students on campus,” Holliday said.

What qualifies you to run?

Larson said she has been involved with ROTC since she arrived at Iowa State, and she had to pause her training because she wanted to run for president. She said her military training enables her to be an effective leader.

Tegtmeier-Oatman said she has been a part of several clubs and has built her leadership and communication skills while at Iowa State.

“I feel that me and Rebecka both have such a diverse background that we’ll be able to not only just serve the people that we’re connected to in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences but all the students at Iowa State,” Tegtmeier-Oatman said.

Roberts said through serving as a senator, a director of academic affairs and as chief of staff, she has learned how both policy and administration work – traits she said a president and vice president need.

Holliday said vice presidents must be educated, active and passionate.

“I have been so involved in my two years here,” Holliday said. “I have joined a sorority, and been involved in clubs within my college and outside of my college, but I also have friends from all across the university, so I know and have been able to hear about what their experiences are like even though they’re not similar to mine.”

Clayburn said he has been involved with Student Government as an at-large, a member of the diversity, equity and inclusion committee, a senator and as finance director. In conjunction with his history with Student Government, Clayburn said his project to bring gender-neutral bathrooms to the Lied Recreation Athletic Center also sets him apart from others.

“In my time, that is the longest project that I’ve seen,” Clayburn said. “It took over two years from start to finish, and I think now being finance director, I see all the needs that students want.”

Slade, who is a current United Residents Off-Campus Senator, has been serving as a clerk for the rules committee and is also a collegiate recovery ambassador.

“That position kind of allows me to advocate for the needs of students on this campus who either identify themselves as students in recovery — whether that is behavioral addiction, substance abuse addiction — or they’re just recovery allies,” Slade said.

What sets you apart from your opposition?

Roberts and Holliday said what sets their campaign apart from the competition is their passion to engage in outreach efforts.

“I think for us, it’s the fact that we have really tried over the last year to gain as much perspective about the university, to meet as many organizations, to understand what our weaknesses and our strengths are and understanding what we will have to do to improve to be the best for the student body,” Roberts said.

Clayburn said one thing that sets his campaign apart from his competition, who have served as senators, is that none of them have seen a project come into fruition that took as much time and effort as his gender-neutral bathroom project took.

“That started September of 2020 and finished in December of 2022, and throughout all those two years, I had to go through COVID, I had to go through administration and also administration kind of not being on my side because it is a lot of money at the end of the day,” Clayburn said.

Clayburn said dealing with the project for two years equipped him with the tools to aid his administration to properly address administration and enabled him to better coordinate with multiple aspects of the university.

Larson said her skills gained through military training set her apart from her competition.

“I have been put in those tough leadership and followership roles; I have led teams, and I have also been a proper teammate,” Larson said. “I know both sides of the field. I know how to work against conflict, [and] I know how to resolve conflict. I know how to get things started, and I know when things need to be stopped.”

Tegtmeier-Oatman said she had been in high leadership positions before, citing work she did with the Pennsylvania FFA association when she had graduated from highschool.

“I’ve had experience where I’ve had to make tough decisions for other people or just be the person that everyone looks at [or] turns to for an answer,” Tegtmeier-Oatman said.

What are your main goals you wish to accomplish if elected?

Roberts said to achieve their goal, she and Holliday plan to prioritize student safety, engagement and health — both mental and physical.

“I think the main goal is to make Iowa State for each student because then it will be for all Cyclones, so that does fall into four categories for us: empowerment, academics, community and health,” Roberts said. “Student Government is representation, but my biggest thing is that while we may physically be in the room, it should be the students’ voices, not ours.”

Holliday said specifically that she and Roberts want to make sure students with accessibility needs feel seen, proposing a potential accessibility map be brought to the MyState app.

“That would ensure that they know what types of door handles are depending on classrooms around campus, where elevators and staircases are accessible to them along with handicap parking,” Holliday said.

Larson said her and Tegtmeier-Oatman’s main campaign points mainly surround the modernization of campus diversity, equity and inclusion and promoting student opportunities.

“One of the really big things that I want to strive for if I get elected is highlighting the hidden gems of Iowa State,” Larson said. “I want to create a video series that highlights all the special things about Iowa State and do little weekly documentaries that highlight the things that students didn’t know existed.”

Clayburn said their platform spawned off three main questions: can students afford to attend Iowa State, do students feel welcomed at Iowa State and do students want to remain at Iowa State.

“We go through the transparency of scholarships, kind of evaluating if what we do right now with OneApp is solidifying and actually allowing students to get as much financial aid as possible, aecause again, college is very expensive,” Clayburn said.

Slade said one of her initiatives if elected would be to make Narcan kits more prevalent on campus and improve transparency.

“I would really like to see more Narcan and health promotion available to students, and we want to use land grant status to encourage transparency between administration students and staff,” Slade said.