It’s that time of year again: MSA election season. It’s why juniors Greg Loeffler and Lauren Damico spent time outside the MU Student Center on Monday afternoon with Hot Box cookies, talking to student voters about their campaign.

Loeffler and Damico are running for Missouri Students Association president and vice president, respectively.

MSA is a large part of Loeffler and Damico’s lives here at MU, they said. Both got involved in organizations on campus their freshman year. Loeffler spent his freshman year as a senator and became the chairman of the Campus and Community Relations Committee the fall of his sophomore year. Last spring, current MSA President Eric Woods appointed him to the MSA Executive Board as the director of Student Services, Loeffler said.

“Beyond that, I’m really involved in Mizzou Spirit and Tiger’s Lair,” Loeffler said. “It gives me an awesome outlet to let all my Mizzou spirit go.”

The duo met their sophomore year when Damico served in the Campus and Community Relations Committee that Loeffler chaired. The two became friends, Lauren Damico said.

“We’re not paired together for political reasons,” Damico said. “We’re paired together because we work great together and we are sincere friends.”

Damico said she and Loeffler bring different experiences to the campaign because they represent different parts of campus. Loeffler is the only non-Greek person in the race, he said.

“That creates balance for us,” Damico said. “I’ve been extremely involved in Greek Life (as) exec for my sorority, Homecoming liaison, intramurals, all that.”

Diversity is a cornerstone of their campaign platform this year. Loeffler is part of One Mizzou, MU’s diversity initiative made up of seven student leaders.

“It’s probably one of the things on campus that I am most proud of, kind of being one of the driving forces behind One Mizzou,” he said.

Beyond diversity, the campaign focuses on transportation, alcohol, campus safety and sustainability, which are issues that affect students, Loeffler said.

“As student body president and vice president, we want to do our best to address all of those,” he said.

Their campaign slogan is “Moving Forward Giving Back,” which represents what they want to accomplish at MU. It also goes along with their ideas for improvement.

Neither wants to only be a candidate for MSA president or vice president. Both love MU and want to show that through their campaign, Loeffler said.

“We’re continuing on, moving forward, with the tradition and the great campus atmosphere we have here,” he said. “We are students representing you, and we want to give back for everything that this University has done for us.”

Loeffler hails from Bristow, Okla., and was raised as a Sooner until he visited MU and fell in love with campus.

He became who he is today because he knew no one upon arriving at MU, he said.

“I got to make all these new friends and become a more diverse, more tolerant person,” he said. “I think about this every day and think about how lucky I am to go to a school that’s so accepting.”

Their campaign manager, Christina Trester, has known Loeffler since his freshman year.

He told her of his plan to run for MSA president and then asked her to manage his campaign, Trester said.

“He cares,” she said. “He loves Mizzou. Mizzou is his life.”