It is election season again at UCF, and this year Weston Bayes and Sydney Altfield are hoping to become the next SGA President and Vice-President.
Voting for SGA candidates begins on Monday and unless you’ve been to the debates, checked out the candidates’ platforms online, or talked to the candidates personally, there is a good chance you do not know what each candidate stands for.
KnightNews.com sat down with each of the candidates personally to discuss issues such as campaign spending, student safety, Greek affairs, the handling of the currently estimated $17.5 million dollar A&SF Budget and much more.
The second part of the series is looking into Weston Bayes and Sydney Altfield, who are running under the campaign slogan “Stand Uknighted”.
Who are they?
Presidential candidate Weston Bayes is a junior who has been involved with SGA since the moment he stepped onto UCF’s campus as a freshman. Starting off on the Student Body President’s Advisory Council, he worked his way up to Deputy Pro Tempore of Senate Operations as sophomore and the Senate President Pro Tempore as a junior this year. Aside from Student Government, Weston is a brother of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and also served as the Comedy Knight Director for UCF Homecoming that brought Craig Robinson to campus.
Vice-presidential candidate Sydney Altfield is a junior, who like Weston, started off her experience in SGA as a member on the Student Body President’s Advisory Council. Since then, Sydney has worked closely with UCF Homecoming serving as the Philanthropy Director her sophomore year and the Concert Knight Director this year as a junior. Sydney is also the President of the Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority and a member of the SDES Advisory Board.
What sets them apart
Weston Bayes has climbed the ladder from a entry-level position into SGA to becoming the Senate President Pro Tempore in three years. Weston has held positions in many of the relevant committees that the SGA President has to work with on a daily basis. His experience of working through SGA from the bottom up helped his ticket receive the endorsement of current SGA President Melissa Westbrook.
“They have the relevant experience and passion to lead UCF and humbly serve 60,000 of their closest friends. I put my full faith in the capabilities of these candidates,” Westbrook said.
Sydney hasn’t been involved in the legislative branch of SGA as much as Weston has, but instead has focused her time on philanthropy around the UCF campus. Although Sydney’s vice-presidential counterpart Lucdwin Luck has the experience of being a United States Marine before coming to UCF, Sydney has the edge on holding bigger positions on campus. As a junior, she balanced being the President of her sorority and planning the UCF Homecoming Concert Knight.
The Issues
Weston and Sydney do not have nearly the amount of platform points as Jessica and Luck do, but instead have very ambitious points that are going to take lots of dedication. First off, their star platform point that has gotten the attention of Orlando media outlets to lobby for a pedestrian bridge across Alafaya would be monumental if accomplished. Bayes is aware of some people calling this point “smoke and mirrors” and believes he can actually get this accomplished when KnightNews.com asked him.
“When you first hear pedestrian walk bridge across that road it does take you back and you say that’s not realistic, but this is something that has honestly been in the works for a while and people have talked about it but there hasn’t been that push behind it to really get it going,” Bayes said.
On issues that directly affect student’s campus life, Weston and Sydney also have big ideas. They want to increase on campus parking, facilitate more on-campus study space and expand the Knight Lynx Bus Route.
Overall, the Weston and Sydney ticket has very ambitious platform points that may seem difficult to accomplish in a one-year term, but given how much they’ve accomplished in three years as students, tackling these huge projects may not be as far-fetched.
