They may be tagged as the "anti-establishment" Marquette Student Government President/Executive Vice President campaign, but Joseph Stopulos and running mate Teresa Kaczmarek – neither of whom has prior MUSG experience – don't necessarily want to be known as such.

"People have tagged us as anti-establishment, and that is not us," said Stopulos, a College of Business Administration junior. "Yes, we will stand up to the establishment to do what students want, but we are not anti-establishment. Instead, we are students who will fight for student wants, and we are as capable of running this office as anyone."

Kaczmarek, another College of Business Administration junior, said she even views her weeklong stint under house arrest after receiving two drinking tickets as an experience that has molded her into a more qualified candidate for the Executive Vice President position.

"The experience changed who I am and made me realize how decisions affect myself and other people," she said.

"Yes, I screwed up . but it has made me into an even better candidate because it helped me realize that there are consequences to bad decisions and made me into a better decision-maker," Kaczmarek said. "Underage drinking is illegal, but drinking alcohol does not affect what we want to do with MUSG and how we want to make a student government more dedicated to the causes of students."

If elected, Stopulos and Kaczmarek promise to work toward increasing the transparency of MUSG, working to improve the LIMO service and reworking the way MUSG handles finances.

Their foremost issue is making MUSG more transparent, according to Stopulos.

"Teresa and I recently attended a senate meeting and with the exception of a few people, we did not know a (senator) there," Stopulos said. "Should we be elected, we will make senators more visible on campus."

According to Stopulos, the only current way for a student to get MUSG involved in something is if he or she came into the office and petitioned the Senate. He said he and Kaczmarek see this as inexcusable.

"People need to know the senators on MUSG, and the senators need to be more approachable," Stopulos said.

Stopulos and Kaczmarek said many of MUSG's biggest problems are simple business issues, which they say their backgrounds in accounting and marketing will help them solve. They said one such problem is the way MUSG handles finances.

"It has been almost an entire year and there has been no major progress in the way MUSG spends money," Stopulos said. "The reserve fund just sits there and Marquette has not felt any economic presence from MUSG all year."

LIMO service is another campus problem Kaczmarek said she hopes to address.

"The LIMO service is awesome; it's great what the university is trying to do . but it needs to be more efficient," Kaczmarek said.

According to Kaczmarek, the 'Cheese' LIMO, which has a specific route and does not take individual calls, is inefficient and should be used differently. Kaczmarek and Stopulos also said they plan to work with the university to create greater incentives to attract LIMO drivers.

"The LIMO service and how MUSG has dealt with it is just another business issue," Kaczmarek said. "The problem with the LIMOs is the lack of drivers and the reason is there is little incentive to be a driver."

Things like increasing the pay of LIMO drivers across the board, increasing pay during peak hours or breaking up the shifts of drivers would attract more students to apply.

"We want to be the voice of the students, stand up for the students and better represent the students," Stopulos said.