Aparna Chandrashekar and Shawn Killian said if they are elected Student Government president and vice president, they will work to accomplish small — but important — changes to help UT students.

Chandrashekar, running for president, is a civil engineering and Plan II senior. Killian, running for vice president, is an aerospace engineering senior.

“(People) can do anything, so we thought, ‘Why can’t we run for Student Government’ and so we did,” Killian said. “We are ‘Shawnparna for,’ meaning that we are Shawn and Aparna and there are a lot of things we want to stand for. We are open to any ideas from students and we want to represent all students. It started off as a joke, but then we realized we actually have good ideas and there are things that actually need change on this campus.”

Killian said there are many small, impactful changes that could be made at UT to help students and said they don’t want to make large promises to students that would not be possible. 

“More people are trusting us with their ideas and it’s been really exciting,” Chandrashekar said. “We’ve been receiving a lot of messages from professors, friends, family and people we don’t even know who say they are proud of us for running. We’re excited to see where this goes.”

Chandrashekar and Killian said no idea is too small for them to look into.

“Our main platform point is free transcripts,” Killian said. “If we actually win, that’s the main thing we want to do. I just think (the cost of transcripts are) ridiculously too much.”

Chandrasheka and Killian also said they hope to bridge different communities across campus and close disconnects that may exist as a result of having such a large University.

“Another idea we had was to have to headphone dispensaries around campus,” Chandrashekar said. “(Everyone) has had headphones break on (them) or have forgotten them at home. Imagine if there was an airport-style vending machine with headphones. We want headphones to be accessible for everyone on campus.”

Chandrashekar and Killian said they have never been involved with SG, but they believe that because they are so far removed from SG, it will give them a more objective perspective of the University and of the real issues students face.