Nick Droege and Zach Beattie are focusing on service, diversity, outreach and sustainability as 2012 Missouri Students Association presidential and vice presidential candidates.

“These positions are not positions of power or of honor — they’re positions of opportunity,” Droege said.

Droege and Beattie said through their service programs, they want to help students with different socioeconomic backgrounds.

“They’re looking at students from different socioeconomic statuses because that’s something that the university overlooks a lot,” said Jimmy Hibsch, Droege and Bettie’s campaign manager.

Droege and Beattie’s two fundamental service programs include a business attire lending service and an emergency no-interest loan program.

The business attire lending service would allow students to rent professional attire and the emergency no-interest loan program would allow students to borrow up to $500 from MSA without interest if paid in a month, according to the campaign website.

Droege and Beattie said they want to make students aware of the variety of cultures and backgrounds at MU.

“A lot of people just think of race when they hear the word diversity, so the word isn’t always clearly defined,” Beattie said. “We want to establish programs that focus on (other) types of diversity as well.”

Some of the specific programs Droege and Beattie have planned include making dining services more adaptable for students with dietary restrictions and expanding the Women’s Center’s Mr. Zou and Ms. Zou programs.

Droege and Beattie also want to expand diversity awareness within MSA by encouraging members to attend various organizations’ meetings.

“(We want to ensure that) people are actively being engaged and participating in other communities, which is more important than just talking about diversity as a whole,” Beattie said.

Droege and Beattie want to make MSA more accessible to students by hosting more information sessions throughout the year targeting international and transfer students, rather than just targeting freshmen at the beginning of the year.

Droege and Beattie’s sustainability goals include participating in MU’s Sustainability Week and raising MU’s green report card grade, according to their campaign website.

“The main thing with (sustainability) is education because we have a lot of programs that have been established that students just don’t really know about,” Beattie said.

Droege said sustainability also means creating an agenda that future presidents and vice presidents would follow.

“It’s not just for (Beattie) and my term, it’s for the next five years to make sure these programs that we start continue and grow,” Droege said.

Although the slate has a long list of goals, Droege said he feels their goals are attainable.

“We’ve talked to administrators, with organizations and with staff members about every little detail of that platform and we’ve made sure it’s 100 percent attainable,” he said.

Together, Droege and Beattie are involved in a wide variety of organizations including Tiger Pantry, MSA, Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, Summer Welcome, Mizzou Unity Coalition and Comedy Wars Improv Troupe, according to their campaign website.

Droege and Beattie said their leadership experiences give them a wide variety of representation.

“As MSA (president and vice president), you’re not just representing MSA, you’re representing the entire student body, so you have to engage every possible community,’” Droege said.

These large networks have created controversy, however.

Droege’s fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha, is funding the majority of his campaign with $2,000. Although some, including a previous Maneater editorial, feel this gives them an advantage, Droege said he disagrees.

“I think you can’t look at funding as an advantage,” he said. “I think the networks that we’ve developed have provided that advantage.”

Beattie said the money would promote the election more than the individual slate. Along with promotional materials, Droege said he and Beattie want to promote the election with their enthusiasm.

“We’re going to have fun with this campaign,” he said. “That’s how you get people involved.”

Droege and Beattie said they think they will connect with students because of their well-planned ideas and thorough leadership experiences.

“I think once you hear what they want to do and what they can do for the university, it’s hard not to fall on board with them,” Hibsch said.