UCOSA’s Upcoming Presidential Election

University of Central Oklahoma Student Association will hold its presidential elections online March 30-31 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The candidates are President Jake Eads and Vice President Luke Underwood, and President Johnny Butler and Vice President Mark Harmon.  

“Running for Student Body president means a lot; this allows me to advocate for students and ensure that their voices are heard,” said Eads.

Eads continued, “For this position, I really want to focus a lot on the students and what their needs are, what their concerns are, and ways that we can help amplify their voices, to make a change on campus.”

“ I think part of what Jake and I already do in UCOSA is listen to student concerns and figure out ways to help those in need,” said Underwood.

Underwood continued, “This is something that we talked about, and something we want to figure out how to do more. It’s definitely something that we would continue to work with and build off of as we move into higher office.”

“A lot of our concerns mainly relate to a lot of things going on campus physically, having accessible ways to enter buildings, and having more safety on campus,” said Eads. “We are trying to address those needs and make changes to where students feel safe and welcomed here on campus.” 

Underwood followed, “To add to that, transparency with certain things like for example if you have been in UCOs campus in the past year, there’s been a lot of construction and its very hard to figure out when it can be expected to be done, why is it taking so long, and there’s a lot of times they don’t give us full dates of when we should expect. And when we do, they will extend it without telling anyone.”

Underwood continued, “So that’s something we want to work on more towards is getting more known factual data out to the students, especially with people who live on campus, who have to deal with this every single day.”

“Students should vote for us because Luke and I are both dedicated to students and allowing that your voices are heard, this campaign is not about us, it’s about the students,” said Eads. 

Underwood followed, “Jake and I are very, naturally selfless people, because we constantly try to find ways to serve and give back to those around us.”

Butler and Harmon are currently sitting senators in UCOSA. 

“I believe any student who votes for me is doing so because if you have dreams as a student and we become student body President and Vice President, your dreams will come true,” said Butler

“With the dream program that we want to implement into this college, I believe that every single student that seeks help and to talk about their dreams with us and the faculty that we will hire on our team.”

Butler continued, “I believe that anybody that seeks that help will accomplish their dreams, with the dream program,” said Butler. 

“The dream program is something that I have implemented in my restaurant in Bricktown. You write down your goals, and you come together for a month and see what and how you are doing to achieve your goals,” said Butler.

Harmon followed, “I think students should vote for us because we offer more than just vague answers to the questions.”

“We have this thing called the Student Action Committee, it would use UCOSA’s funds to hire students to fix the issues here on campus, it would provide to the student economy, so students who can’t afford to have a full time job could maybe work five to six hours a week and give a few hundred dollars to fix the issues that concern them directly here on campus,” said Harmon.

“Coming from Rose State College, I was the student body president there, and seeing how those meetings were run and compared to UCO, I believe that the president should be at every meeting,” said Butler. 

“This means everything to me, because I think that our skills combined, we can do a lot of good for the students,” Butler continued, “I believe that this is a gift of mine, I do it for the students because this is something I’ve had a yearning for in student government, and I want to leave the students with the leadership abilities that I’ve attained over the years through being a restaurateur and being student body president at Rose State College.”

Harmon followed, “Again just to serve the students, and as far for why, it’s because we are also students, and for future generations that will come, I want it to be better for them,” Harmon continued, “I want it to be better for them, one day my brother’s gonna be in college, one day my two little sisters are going to be in college, whether they go here or somewhere else, I want the place they go to to have an environment that is best for their learning and their growth as people.” 

Voting will take place online through UCORE or in person in the Night University Center from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.