Presidential showdown

TYLER ERNST

Undergraduate Assembly member and UA Presidential candidate Tyler Ernst, a Wharton and Engineering junior, is “secretly obsessed with Amy Gutmann” and, like the University’s president, he has “a vision for Penn.”

“I have a vision that is relevant to students and something they would care about,” said Ernst, who directs the UA Student Life Committee, chaired the Lambda Alliance — an umbrella group for the LGBT community — last year­­­, and played on the men’s club volleyball team.

Ernst, who is a self-proclaimed “people person,” originally joined the UA two years ago because “I had some time on my hands.” However, his involvement in student government quickly became much more than that and he has been “living and breathing student government” ever since.

“From the beginning, the opportunity to live these experiences [as a student] and then to have the opportunity to make change in my life and other students’ lives … has been amazing.”

Although Ernst is confident in what UA members can do, he would like to see “students feeling empowered by their student government” as well.

Ernst, who will run with Wharton junior and UA member Faye Cheng as his vice-presidential candidate, explained that with Tyler and Faye, you will “have it your way.”

Ernst hopes to enable students to have it their way by addressing their academics, community and personal life.

He plans to increase faculty diversity and create a Penn InTouch waitlist during class registration. He also cited a funding fair for student groups to understand and manage the numerous funding sources at Penn as an important aspect to focus on in community life. Ernst has also already worked on several initiatives with regards to the dining hall experience which would be a focal point for his personal life platform.

In the end, however, Ernst explained, “I’m just here to be a Penn student and represent you and advocate for you.”

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CORNELIUS RANGE

College junior and Undergraduate Assembly presidential candidate Cornelius Range wants you. Literally.

“I would like to see a more engaged student body in student government,” he said. “Student government should be a microcosm of what we are as a campus as opposed to just a club.”

Range, who was a UA member his freshman year, resigned in the fall semester of his sophomore year because “the UA wasn’t what I wanted it to be or what it should be.”

“We were so isolated and disconnected from the student body at large … and I felt like I could be doing other things,” he said.

Since resigning from the UA in 2009, Range has found other ways to be involved in the Penn community as the vice president of external affairs for the Memory Team, a member of the Community School Student Partnerships, a member of the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity and a member of the marketing team for The Vision, a black-interest publication.

Although he has enjoyed these activities, Range would like to return to the UA because “I’m passionate about the school and passionate about students who make up the student body.”

“This is my opportunity to tackle this issue of student participation,” he added.

Range suggested making the usual closed UA retreats held at the beginning of the fall semester open to all students, actively inviting freshmen, athletic groups, performing arts groups, service groups and the Greek community to share ideas with current UA members.

“There’s all this idea power out there [in the student body] that we need to tap into,” he said.

Range will run with College junior Adam Hamilton as his vice-presidential candidate who also resigned from the UA at the same time as Range, citing the same reasons as Range for departure.

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