My name is Elliot Spillers, and I will be your next Vice President of Student Affairs. Currently, I’m a sophomore at the University majoring in business management and serving as Deputy Director of Engagement in the Student Government Association.

I am running for VPSA because I have a passion for connecting students of all backgrounds and creating solutions toward a unified campus environment. As VPSA, my mission will be to bring students together for the betterment of our university. Through policies such as an increase in civic engagement, a Capstone Pledge and Unity Week, students will be able to engage in dialogue and learn the story of others.

Experience has taught me that people can connect and establish relationships through common interests. As a student director in the Community Service Center, I’ve had the opportunity of witnessing students come together by serving our Tuscaloosa family. On March 8, I hope to, again, see this vision of a united university through “Hands on Tuscaloosa,” a day of service I’ve been planning alongside the University’s finest leaders.

Each of us comes from a different sphere of campus, but collectively we are working to enhance our student body. As VPSA, I hope to implement more large-scale serve initiatives such as Hands on Tuscaloosa to further bridge the divide among our student body. As students of this great school, we must implement the idea that together it’s our duty to protect the environment we love.

As students, we must uphold the moral standing that we are connected as one body. I hope to implement a week designed to celebrate the student body as VPSA. In this week, different events will be held across our university that allows students to honor the tradition of our university and make progress. Today, there are many organizations that are individually working toward unity and are successful in their own way.

My job as Vice President of Student Affairs will not be to reinvent the wheel, but to create collective ideas with these organizations for the voices of 35,000 students. Teamwork is the ability to generate one goal and one vision and implement one purpose. Here at the Capstone, we are a team, and as a team we must work toward the common vision of unity.

Through a Capstone Pledge, I hope to create an oath aimed at eliminating the divide between students here at the University. This pledge will be a measuring tool for the progress we make as students.

In 1893, the first female students enrolled at the University due to the tireless efforts of a woman named Julia S. Tutwiler. Then, in 1963, the progression of minorities was led by the tireless efforts of students wanting to attain a quality education at our university.

Each wave of tradition was ultimately led by students willing to make a difference, which is why I love this university. We as students must preserve our tradition and protect the progression we make as one.

We have all pledged allegiance to this university, and all of us should defend the values we stand by. If elected as VPSA, the road we take will be a gradual progression, but each step we take will be together as students.

My mission is not only to ensure that each and every student earns a degree, but also to ensure that each student leaves The University of Alabama with the satisfaction that they took part in creating the UA for today.

Elliot Spillers is a candidate for the position of SGA Vice President for Student Affairs.