Junior Paul Lee and sophomore Keiji Drysdale, who are running for Student Union (SU) President and Vice President (VP), respectively, placed first in the primary elections on Tuesday, May 26 with a total of 297 votes. They will advance to the general elections on Monday, June 8 along with junior Casey Griffin and sophomore Oren Bukspan, who came in second with 201 votes.

Although Lee and Drysdale lack the SU experience Griffin and Bukspan have, the pair said they make up for it through their involvement in the student body.

Lee currently holds the position of junior class VP. He is also an active member of the Speech and Debate team, was producer for Soph-Frosh SING! and stage manager for Junior SING!.

“I’ve been active in school,” Lee said. “I wanted to run because of this.”

Though Drysdale has never held an SU elected or appointed position, he was a member of the Freshmen Advisory Council. Drysdale said he is also highly involved in school activities, citing his participation in SING! and two sports teams, basketball and golf, as examples.

According to their platform statement, the candidates, if elected, “promise to change the SU to become [...] creative, accessible, flexible, and accountable.”

In order to do so, Lee and Drysdale said they would need to improve communication between the SU and the student body. “We’re concerned about reaching out to people outside the SU,” Drysdale said. “We’ll work on making the SU more compatible to [students'] wishes.”

One of the ways Lee and Drysdale hope to improve this relationship is by making use of the SU’s room. For example, the pair would like to put computers inside the SU for student use.

“The SU needs to be more flexible,” Lee said. “We want to make more student space.”

Lee and Drysdale also plan on working with the other organizations in the SU. If elected, they will ask Big Sibs to give tours of the SU to their Little Sibs, allowing students to be introduced to the SU office as early as possible.

The two would like to station ARISTA tutoring inside the SU rather than its usual location inside a classroom. Students would become more accustomed to the SU.

In addition, Lee and Drysdale said they would also like to improve relations with the administration. “[We] will try harder to work with the administration to benefit the students,” Drysdale said.

“[Principal Stanley] Teitel has complained that the SU does not meet with him enough. We want to change this,” Lee said.

Furthermore, Lee and Drysdale said that if elected, they will improve upon current SU issues, “such as reworking the candy policies, defending student rights, and promoting school spirit.”

Other plans the two have include reviving STUYSPACE, revamping the SU and increasing fundraising.

“There are goals we want to set and meet,” Lee said. “Our plans should be clear to the student body.”