The Progress party SA executive board candidates we met with were presidential candidate junior political science major Greg Stern, vice presidential candidate junior legal studies and philosophy major Marquis Whitmore, and treasurer candidate sophomore international business major Peter Grollitsch.

Running together as the Progress party, presidential candidate Greg Stern, vice presidential candidate Marquis Whitmore, and treasury candidate Peter Grollitsch hold their own in enthusiasm and attitude, if not in experience. Stern was on the SA assembly in 2004 and has been a Justice to the Student-Wide Judiciary. He boasts himself as a young entrepreneur as well as manager of the men’s basketball team. Vice presidential candidate Whitmore follows with great leadership as president of his high school mock trial team and the volunteer coach of area football and wrestling teams. Grollitsch showed experience from inside the association as the current SA bookkeeper.

Their ideas, though they may be ambitious, showed promise. They pledged to even out the budgets of various SA clubs, vowing to “take their needs into consideration.” Regardless of their history with UB sports, the candidates stressed the importance of understanding the successes of smaller SA clubs throughout increased budget, though, they say, “it’s very easy to gauge the success of sports clubs.”

Their platform also included their plans for the SA newsletter and television station, Visions and SATV, respectively. They intend to broaden the content of Visions by bringing in news and features from the greater Buffalo community, as well as similarly broadening the television station.

Entertainment, always a hot-button issue, is unlikely to change under the Progress party. They stand behind the accomplishments of the past year, highlighting the attendance of last semester’s Fall Fest and intend to continue the DJ micro-series in Buffalo’s downtown clubs.

The Progress party faltered, however, when it came to discuss UB’s 2020 plan. The candidates were clearly unprepared to comment one way or another on the specifics of the plan set forth by UB president John Simpson. It was unanimous between Generation staff that treasury candidate Peter Grollitsch had an understanding of SA that the other members of his ticket couldn’t hold-up to.

Progress sees the importance of bringing the SA to the students, especially incoming freshmen. They plan to “bring the third floor to the first floor” in the union, rather than expecting students to come to find them. In a fitting ending to their speech, the candidates each added to a metaphor of the Student Union as a family. “The Student Union is a family room,” they said, adding that the SA should be the father to that family.