Mad Party Student Government President candidate Charles Uffelman is full campaigning mode with the up coming election approaching.
Uffelman has been involved with Student Government for three years and is running for his fourth year. He was a freshman senator and the speaker of the senate in his first year. Currently he is serving out his second term in the senate.
“I have loved politics and knew I wanted to be in politics since I was in fifth grade,” Uffelman said. “I noticed my county did not have road signs that said Houston County's 4H clubs welcome you like a lot of county do and I wanted that for my county.”
Uffelman began going to business around his county to raise money for the signs and even had them made. He then went to the roads commissioner who put up the signs for him for free since he had showed such initiative.
“It was that moment that I realized how much you could do for your community just by being active and by being the first person to go out there and say I want this done will you help me,” Uffelman said. This is what Uffelman want to build his campaign on.
Mad standing for “Make A Difference” was started by past SGA president Robert Kirby with the help of Uffelman and others in 2012. The Mad Party helped get the plans for the new land bridge and rec center in action. The land bridge has been in discussion for over 30 years and is now being put into action partially in thanks to the Mad Party.
Raven Douglas the vice president candidate for the Mad Party knew that Mad was going to continue to develop in SGA and wanted to get on board.
“When Charles asked me to be his vice president it caught me off guard at first,” Douglas said. “But after praying about I knew that if Charles believed in me then I was the person that could get the job done.”
If elected Douglas wants to work with students in any way that she can to make sure that every student's voice is heard in student government.
Uffelman's campaign is built on both short term and long term goals. His short-term goals include investing in the student section at games and create a fund to hire bigger concert acts on a regular basic. Long-term goals are investing in to stay up to date so they are not falling behind other universities. Uffelman is ready to push the administration to get the focus back on academics.
Darrion Garrett is the campaign manager for Uffelman and knew that he could be the man for the job.
“Charles has a very deep passion for the university and he knows that leadership is not about what you want but what is best for students and the university as a whole,” Garrett said
“This campus is great. Memphis has a lot of stuff going on for it. But I want more. I want a bigger, better and bolder University of Memphis. I want a bigger student life. I want a bigger student voice. I want better dinning halls. I want better dorms. I want bolder events so people all across the mid-south, the south, and the country can see that Memphis is the place to be because that's how I feel and I want everyone else to feel the same way,” Uffelman said.
