Student Government parties taking student ideas

UF political parties are taking the campaign for Student Government seats online this semester.

The Students Party and the Unite Party are gearing up for the senate and executive elections on Feb. 21 and Feb. 22 and upping their online campaigning.

The Unite Party debuted a new website and is using Facebook to interact with students.

A question posted on the party's page asked what students wanted to see changed on campus. Students said they did not want a tuition increase, and they also voted for a Chick-fil-a with a breakfast menu at the Reitz Union and integration of ISIS, e-Learning and Webmail.

Party members will post videos to the Facebook page, said party spokeswoman Christina Bonarrigo.

The Students Party will also be shifting its campaign toward the Web.

The party will put up tables with laptops to encourage students to post ideas on its Facebook page, Sen. Carly Wilson said.

The tables will be set up Wednesday and Thursday on Turlington Plaza and at the Reitz Union from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Unite Party will still have a board for platform ideas at Turlington and the North Lawn on Tuesday.

Wilson said her party wants people who wouldn't walk through those areas to be able to participate.

"We encourage students wherever they are to post ideas on the wall," Wilson said.

Not every idea necessarily goes on the party platforms, though.

"We use the most frequent ones and the ones we feel can be accomplished," Bonarrigo said.

Second-year religion major Jessica Virgille, 19, writes her request for completely wireless dorms on the Unite Party slate platform on Turlington Plaza on Monday. "If we can have it [wireless] out here, we can have it everywhere," Virgille said.