WSU’s Turning Point USA President Olivia Gallegos is running for student body president unopposed. 

This is the second year in a row having only one ticket running for SGA president. In the last five years, this is the third time. The 2018 election was the first unopposed election since 2005. 

Gallegos, who is running alongside Mitchell Adamson, said her campaign is focused on four goals: transparency, mental health, financial literacy and safety.

“We want to be very open and transparent about what we’re doing and about what’s going on because I think students often don’t know what’s going on in SGA, just because they’re not sure what SGA is, and they’re not sure what the proper channels are to receive information,” she said. 

If Gallegos wins the presidency, she still plans on keeping her position as Turning Point USA president.

At Wichita State, Turning Point USA has been faced with controversy. The organization was initially denied registered student organization status by the student government association, despite a letter from FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) telling SGA that denying a group would be against freedom of speech. The supreme court ultimately overturned the senate’s decision and Turning Point USA received RSO status. 

Gallegos faced criticism early on when she chose to highlight Turning Point USA contributor Morgan Zegers in a social media post for women’s history month. A group of students on social media called for her resignation, but Gallegos did not resign and was a senator the following year. She has been a senator for two sessions.

Adamson, a sophomore studying economics and former Sunflower staffer, said his focus on the campaign is the finances. 

“She needed help more with creating more of an internal control system within the student government,” Adamson said. “That’s really my main focus is to focus on creating subcommittees within the group, maybe even, you know, trying to get courses for the people who want to be involved in the financial side.”

Gallegos said that safety is another top priority.

“We definitely want to work with [the Office of Disability Services] to make the university more ADA accessible, as well as our senate’s safety and student services committee and working with them as well and having that conversation,” Gallegos said. 

Adamson said that SGA members need to treat their position more professionally.

“Some students, they treat it more as a club and, you know, it’s an actual job, you know, these senators and these people get paid for this position. And, they don’t tend to take it as seriously as, you know, an actual position.”

SGA voting opens April 4 and goes through April 6.