Gurney, Gonzales hope for students to ‘expect more’

As candidates launch into their campaigns for SGA President and Vice President, running mates Nicholas Gurney, a senior legal studies major, and Fernando Gonzales-Portillo, a junior molecular biology and microbiology major, want to convey one main message to students: "Expect more."

Gurney has been on SGA's senate for two years and served as attorney general, and Gonzales has three years of experience, including a spot in the Activities & Service Fees committee and a year as Conference Registration and Travel committee chair.

Here, Gurney and Gonzales discuss what students can expect from their campaign and potential administration.

Central Florida Future: Tell me about when you guys first discussed running together on a ticket.

Fernando Gonzales: I would say around January we started having serious discussions about forming a ticket. We started off talking about things that we want and what we saw wrong in SGA that we wanted to change and improve upon. When we talked about that we found out that we have a lot in common and shared a lot of the same views. We decided that it might be interesting to form a ticket instead of splitting up forces.

Nicholas Gurney: We've known each other for a while. We were on two senate sessions together, but never really hung out or were friends. In January we started talking about things that were not even related to the presidency and vice presidency and it just worked out. We have a lot of similar ideals and that ended up bringing us a lot closer than two terms on service had actually done.

CFF: After that was established, what was your next step?

Gonzales: We had so many different things we agreed on, so it was basically trying to organize the main issues we were going to address first. We just wanted to organize them in a way to get a consistent message out to students.

Gurney: For us it was sitting down, and saying ‘Where do we need to be organized? Where do we need to communicate?' Not just amongst ourselves, but to the general student population.

CFF: How did you decide upon your campaign slogan, "Expect More"?

Gonzales: We had lots of ideas, but the final one we decided on was "Expect More." Expect more from SGA, expect more from academics. Basically, raising the standards students have for SGA and what we do and try to get them to expect more from us.

Gurney: We want to make sure that the product we put out there is something that students can really relate to and that's what "Expect More" actually is. We know that students have certain expectations of their leaders and we want them to feel comfortable expecting more than they currently do because, right now, sometimes not even their mildest expectations are met.

Gonzales: It was a great way to centralize everything into one message.

CFF: What are your three main platforms and how did you come up with them?

Gurney: I think that for us, the three main platforms are academics, campus life and SGA as a whole. We came up with those three because some of those three are things that are touched on every year — campus life, SGA — but academics is something that's very rarely [touched on]. That came up because we like being unconventional at times, we like taking a different approach to things that maybe hasn't been tried in the past. A lot of times people don't take the unconventional approach because it's not easy.

Gonzales: I've really enjoyed my time at UCF and I want everyone to have that same awesome experience I've had so far at UCF. I have lots of ideas for programs that I want to do that I think students would enjoy. I want to do larger-scale, more effective programs.

Gurney: [SGA] came up from us both being in SGA for the last year. Just being there and being in that office, it's easy to see where disconnect is and why students don't feel like they're connected. I think that it's very important for us to target certain areas of how the office itself is run, how SGA as a whole is viewed and what is actually done to fix that. It's really important for us to address the accountability, the approachability and the professionalism in the office, dealing with the transparency of a lot of the things that go on in the office.

CFF: What endeavors started and/or completed by your predecessor to you plan on finishing or maintaining?

Gurney: I think the first would be the [24-hour] Study Space. That ties in a lot to our academic platform. It's not going to be something we run on, but it's definitely something we're going to support if elected. It's something that really provides a service to a side of campus that doesn't necessarily receive those kinds of services in terms of the Towers and the Lake Claire housing. They're so far disconnected from the library and the main academic center of campus and it's important that they have a facility as well.

Gonzales: Continuing the printing labs we have here, but also expanding that to regional campuses as well. I think those are very easy to do and things that I think regional campuses should get as well. I know Taylor Lochrane did a lot of regional campus outreach and I want to continue that, especially with the College of Medicine as it continues to grow.