Nick Evans and Calla Price decided to run for student body president and VP over five months ago.

The pair is one of four tickets vying for the presidential roles in 2016’s student body elections. Evans and Price bring a message of growth in their campaign, from increasing student safety surrounding transportation to sexual assault prevention, to connecting with the Fargo-Moorhead community, to championing student involvement transcripts.

“We feel like with President Bresciani’s vision of growing NDSU’s student body to 18,000 students, our growth is a really great theme for student leadership on campus at this time,” said presidential candidate Price, a senior in finance.

Student safety 

A three-point platform of student safety, community outreach and student life guides Evans and Price’s campaign. The first point covers awareness of traffic on campus, from bikes the longboards.

“There’s a lot more traffic on our sidewalks, and the big thing we want to do here is inform students how to properly ride a bike on a sidewalk,” Evans said, adding more training or an educational component prior to bike checkout are potential.

Safety also extends to sexual assault prevention and bystander intervention, Price said, adding students should get behind the training they receive rather than groaning.

“You could possibly be saving someone’s life by doing it,” she said, adding speakers and student voices could further bolster the training.

A walkthrough in active shooter training is also under Evans and Price’s first platform point, training that Evans said he valued receiving from a recent internship.

“We want to offer this sense of security by offering this resource,” Evans said, adding their ticket will promote North Dakota State’s current active shooter training video, something he said students are likely unaware of as a resource.

Community outreach 

Creating a relationship with Fargo-Moorhead leaders is a line under Evans and Price’s second point of community outreach.

“We want to work with … city commission and have someone who’s on that board … whenever they meet, we want someone there,” Price said, adding homecoming and downtown parking are two areas to collaborate on with the city.

Working with the city commission, Downtown Community Partnership and others is something new for this election cycle, as Price said “that relationship hasn’t been there for, gosh, three, four years ago.”

Community outreach would also extend to Bismarck, where the state legislature is set to meet in January.

Evans said his and Price’s combined six years in student government, more than any other ticket running, makes them uniquely qualified for this platform point.

“We’ve seen multiple sessions through the legislature and … we’ve seen what makes certain lobbyists successful and not,” he said.

Evans and Price also support a North Dakota Supreme Court ruling on NDSU Police jurisdiction, and would strive for making “students feel safe.”

Student life 

Intrusive advising guides part of Evans and Price’s last platform point.

“We’d like to see all departments and all colleges take that into their advising model,” Price said, adding advising is “more than just classes.”

Advising should extending to career advice and extracurricular involvement, Price said, thus maximizing advising potential.

Student involvement transcripts are another pillar of student life, the pair said.

“This is something the Union has been working on for a number of years,” Evans said, “but it’s getting to the point where it has to clear one more IT hurdle and then it’s good to go, and we would like to put the full weight of student government behind it … when it clears that hurdle.”

Student involvement transcripts would highlight skills and traits of each student organization, Price said, thus supplementing a student’s academic transcript with their extracurricular involvement.

“It could lead you to a job,” Evans said.

Election 2016

With four tickets in the race, Evans and Price said that’s “never gonna be a bad thing”; in fact, it could help voter turnout. Last year’s student body elections saw approximately 13 percent of students vote.

Contact tables are a big highlight already, they said, as students notice people who are “making a fuss” about something.

“I think we’re going to see a higher turnout,” Price said, adding, “More competition is only going to make our platform stronger. … We have to make sure we’re the best.”

“It’s really hard to tell, to be honest,” Evans said about voter turnout.

The pair also said the two-week campaign is long enough, as anything longer would be hard on finances and potentially annoying to students who may feel campaigns are wearing long.

“It’s long enough. We’re able to assemble our campaign teams beforehand and schedule visits beforehand. … As long as you do your work ahead of time, I feel two weeks is enough,” Evans said.