UC Berkeley sophomore Raymond Hufnagel launched his campaign for the ASUC Senate on Thursday.

Hufnagel, an Elevate Cal candidate, said his platform is centered around reform, transparency and accessibility through mental health, the Transition to Cal program, Greek Life community development and sexual health.

“I’m really ambitious to create as much positive change as possible during my time as a senator,” Hufnagel said. “I completely am ready to kind of hit the ground running and start on initiatives and just try to make Berkeley a better place for students in regards to these aspects.”

Hufnagel said he has experience within the ASUC as an associate for communications within the ASUC Office of the President his freshman year and he currently serves as the director of mental health in ASUC Senator Samantha Coffey’s office.

He also works as the director of Transition to Cal in ASUC Senator Issabella Romo’s office.

“He’s always been able to efficiently execute all of the projects by working with not only me, but his own department and other departments in my office,” Romo said. “I have full confidence that he’s going to be able to execute everything that he’s promising in his campaign.”

A few projects Hufnagel has spearheaded, according to Romo, include overseeing the development of the Transition to Cal website, working on the up-and-coming mentorship program for newly admitted students, and leading an event in September for new students within the Getting Your Bearings program put on during Golden Bear Orientation.

Hufnagel said what initially drove him to want to run for ASUC senator was witnessing the organization’s inefficiency at times.

“With the ASUC, there’s a lot of bureaucracy that it is surrounded with and there’s a lot of different road bumps into getting initiatives done,” Hufnagel said. “I really want to streamline them and also collaborate with a bunch of other senators so we can all get our initiatives completed.”

Through being the director of mental health within Coffey’s office, Hufnagel said he has already had the opportunity to work on campus issues, such as the prevention side of mental health.

This semester, Hufnagel said that Coffey’s office is working on a project in collaboration with campus organizations to develop chatrooms where students can talk about their mental health with peers or through professional counseling.

Hufnagel added that no matter the outcome of this spring’s elections, he will continue to work on addressing the problems he cares about in any way he can.

“Regardless of title or not, I’m still very very passionate about these issues,” Hufnagel said. “I definitely will probably take a position and still try to carry out these initiatives and still try to get this stuff done that is much needed on our campus.”