Candidates from the Greater Tomorrow party, including presidential candidate, senior business administration major Rob Mercurio, vice presidential candidate, senior civil engineering major Scott Swamback, and treasurer candidate, junior civil engineering major Zach Lauria met with Generation to discuss their party’s platform. These three rugby-playing friends say their biggest strength is the diversity of their beliefs. “We don’t have the same opinions but we can discuss them and get through it and solve the problem from there,” said Mercurio. Although the Greater Tomorrow party has no delegates running, Mercurio says, “We would take any delegate that is best for the job.”

The party’s members stand out from other candidates in both dress and mannerisms, but showing up in a polo shirt in an election where candidates are traditionally slickly dressed doesn’t bother Mercurio. “We don’t have to dress up to show how serious we are,” he said. “Are we anything special? No. We’re just hard workers and we want to get the job done.” Both Swamback and Lauria are involved in the rugby club, and Mercurio is serving as a SUNY delegate.

For Greater Tomorrow, the biggest issue facing SA is a lack of communication. “You don’t need to look very hard to see the issues with communication among the executive board, among core groups [clubs], and all the way down to the students,” noted Lauria. Mercurio pointed to the SA forums and said that increasing the awareness and location of the events would make them even more effective. He also promised that the entire party would keep regular office hours, be highly visible, and be receptive to student input.

The group feels that clubs and events are in need of an overhaul. Lauria is “Tired of the events and the groups that are sucking massive amounts of money from the budget that only five or six kids show up to.” Mercurio noted that there were a lot of events that he didn’t know about because of poor information dissemination. Swamback suggested a large, comprehensive event board, and Lauria said that there should be a portal on the SA website to deal with events and offer students another way to contact SA.

Greater Tomorrow wanted to address possible concerns about their athletic backgrounds and the influence it could have on their decisions. “If you can legitimately benefit the student body, you’re going to get a fair shake from me,” said Lauria. Swamback pointed out that other candidates are rarely questioned on their club loyalties, and Mercurio asserted that the party’s ability to “step into the other person’s shoes” was one of their best qualities.

The Greater Tomorrow candidates said they would like better concerts, and pledged to inform students of Fallfest and Springfest dates further in advance to allow students time to plan.

Greater Tomorrow’s platform revolves around the tenets of hard work and being genuine. “If you want to know how serious we are, just come up and ask us anything,” said Lauria. On more than one occasion, Mercurio emphasized the party’s desire to “get to work and do our jobs.” The three acknowledge they are friends and feel that would help them once in office. “That’s one of the huge benefits that we bring,” said Swamback, “We will work together as a group, and there’s no going behind each other’s back.”

Greater Tomorrow says its goal is to improve the way SA is run, not to make sweeping changes that might not be implemented in a single year. “It’s not over-excessive, shoot the moon type activities,” said Mercurio. “These are legitimate things that could help a lot.”