Vanderbilt presidential candidates have just been announced

The candidates for the 2016 Vanderbilt student president race have just been announced.

Ariana Fowler and Jude Cohen are vying for the presidential spot.

At a declaration meeting held tonight, both candidates publicly announced their decision to run.

Ariana Fowler is a junior majoring in HOD and MHS. She is co-chair of Vanderbilt’s Speakers Committee, a VUceptor and a member of the Panhellenic Inclusivity Task Force.

First Vandy, then the free world? Ariana Fowler is running for student president at Vanderbilt

Her Vice Presidential running mate is Taylor Gutierrez, a junior studying Mechanical Engineering. He is the incoming president of Vanderbilt Off-Broadway and serves as the Vice-President of the Vanderbilt Performing Arts Community Executive Board.

“Ariana is one of the smartest people I know”, said Taylor. “She is absolutely brilliant, seeing that work ethic and that ambition really encouraged me to want to work with her.”

As Ariana declared her candidacy, she said: “I hope people take the time to look at people’s record of involvement. We don’t feel like VSG needs to be everywhere, but if we’re a broken organisation, when people come to us, we can’t help them. I don’t think people know what a good VSG looks like. Taylor added, “I would like VSG to rebuild trust with the Vanderbilt community.”

“Taylor is one of the most detail-orientated people I know and is incredibly driven”, said Ariana of her running mate. “He has also never been involved with VSG before which gave him an incredibly interesting insight”.

Running against Ariana is Jude Cohen, a junior majoring in Cross Cultural Communication and Romance Languages. Jude is a VUceptor and the President of Dores for Israel, she is also on the CityVU Programming Board.

Jude said she is “so excited to finally tell everyone” that she is running.

Jude Cohen is a junior at Vanderbilt

Jude’s Vice Presidential running mate is Andrew Brodsky, a sophomore majoring in HOD and Communication Studies. He is the President of the Peabody College Council, on the Tour Guides Executive Board and also a VUceptor.

“Andrew is really a hard-worker with a vision for the future”, Jude said of her running mate. “He is very nurturing but also very realistic. That positivity and leadership style was what I wanted going forward”.

Jude and Andrew have both worked on Vanderbilt elections before, they supported different campaigns last year. Jude said this spoke to their ability “to work with everyone and anyone”.

Both presidential candidates are also members of Greek Life. Ariana is a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma and Jude is part of Chi Omega.

The campaigning officially begins on March 14th, the Monday after Spring Break and general election voting will take place March 22nd – 23rd.

Carly Stone, the Election Commissions Chair, emphasised the need for positive campaigning and reminded candidates that violations from team members could jeopardise their tickets.

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