Billy Allocca, a campus sophomore and business administration major, announced his independent candidacy for ASUC Senate on Thursday night.

He plans to advocate for normalizing education on the prevention of sexual misconduct, enhancing new student reception and improving life in the residence halls. Allocca also capitalized on his experience as the current ASUC Senate vice chair — a position that he has held since May 2017 — which requires him to attend every senate meeting and gives him an institutional knowledge of how the senate is run.

Allocca said a senator should bring both good leadership capabilities and strong management abilities in order to best utilize the senator’s entire office.

“As much as you talk or advocate for something, at the end of the day, it’s about how well you manage the people who work on that issue,” Allocca said. “A good senator plays within the rules of the ASUC well.”

Within his platforms, Allocca said he wants to create mandatory training on the prevention of sexual harassment and violence for student organization leaders, as well as add mandatory consent talks at student organization events.

Allocca also plans to integrate more STEM major classes into the Fall Program for Freshman, or FPF, and address certain overarching problems within FPF, such as transportation. He also wants to improve the collaboration between the ASUC and Cal Dining, given his background as a resident assistant and as an official in the Residence Hall Assembly.

Rachel Lin, Allocca’s campaign manager, said his experience as the senate’s vice chair will be beneficial as a senator because that gives him more knowledge about the ASUC as an institution.

“Since he’s the senate vice chair, he’s basically helping run the senate,” Lin said. “That’s something that’s unique to him, and he can totally bring that to the table.”

The 2018–19 ASUC elections are scheduled for April 9–11.