Platform
A lot of the candidates genuinely have great ideas and inspiration, but one thing I noticed that none have seemed to mention, whether intentional or not, is the ability to get things done due to Students’ Association current culture. Specifically, there’s so much bureaucracy and legitimate politics involved that it makes it hard to even get anything passed, and this has had a tantalizing effect on the Senators which no one has seemed to mention.
Senators have just felt burned out. They came in, motivated and ready to make the change of promise, but a good portion dropped after the first semester, many more being put up for removal after not attending a certain number of Senate meetings. These meetings shouldn’t be a chore, but they are because the meetings are a drag. There are rules and regulations for everything, for who can talk, for putting things on the agenda, and for voting. There is an increasing amount of limitations that block senators for making and passing legislation, and that affects their morale. This doesn’t mean they haven’t passed anything – they actually have done quite a few things, but if your token accomplishment is still the passage and implementation of all-gender restrooms, something that was passed a year ago, we really have to question how frequent these accomplishments are – and this is coming from their PR guy.
This is not anyone’s fault. This is not the Senators fault. This is not anyone who is running’s fault, nor Grant, nor Melissa’s. It is the fault of the various bureaucratic and excessive policy procedures. We need to keep the passion for change that Senators come in with. I want to limit these policies by talking to current Senators, and those that have dropped because of the various bureaucracy issues. This is seriously not supposed to happen. In fact, it has become a running joke during Senate meetings that we spend way too much time on seemingly unimportant matters, often messaging each other through social media and criticizing the current meeting.
Second, transparency is an issue that almost all candidates have written about. In fact, I believe communications and the Public Relations team were one of the biggest talking points for candidates during the debate. Candidates claim that they want to bridge the gap between the student body and the government, but what is their master plan? Simply posting committee minutes online, or making more blog posts? Exactly how does that invigorate the student body? Two words: it doesn’t. The way to be transparent is to be visible on campus. Senators and leaders should be physically reaching out to students and groups by either visiting residence halls, dining locations, or student centers to make themselves visible and hear the concerns of the student body. These Senators were elected to represent their specific student body, but after being burnt out by bureaucracy and literal politics, we lose transparency and invigoration from both the student body and the student government. It’s as simple as repeatedly meeting different students and different voices to create real transparency – and sure, we can put minutes online too.
Lastly, and this is a topic close to me, is the topic of systemic and implicit racism around campus. When asked about diversity and race issues on campus at the Wednesday debate, none of the candidates had satisfactory answers, some more disappointing than others. It’s true, that racism exists, but it’s not explicitly visible. You’ll may never hear someone say anything something specifically bad about any race, but that doesn’t mean that there is implicit racism involved. As a Muslim who grew up post-9/11, these attacks on religion and race were very much apparent to me, so I realize the hurt and pain the Black community, the International community, and the LGBT+ community have felt. We need to start holding discussions with people who hold implicit racist beliefs, and target the problem at its core, rather than suggesting, for example, to ban the use of Yik Yak, which completely avoids the issue at hand. We need to educate. I am a huge proponent of the One Community program during Orientation, and we should expand that even further. We should be training Resident Advisors, Community Assistants, student leaders, and the average student body to talk about discrimination in a more explicit way than done now. It’s completely true that we’re better than that, but we need to find a way to get there in the first place.
In closing, this campaign serves as a write-in for our candidates to do better. I’m tired of hearing the same platforms that center on transparency and cookie-cutter issues. Remove the excessive bureaucracy that burns out Senators that decreases real change and impact. Remove the excessive bureaucracy that still allows racism to be rampant in our community on campus. Remove the bureaucracy that allows students to think poorly of their student government, despite their successes in the past few years. We simply have to do better.
~Saad
Senators have just felt burned out. They came in, motivated and ready to make the change of promise, but a good portion dropped after the first semester, many more being put up for removal after not attending a certain number of Senate meetings. These meetings shouldn’t be a chore, but they are because the meetings are a drag. There are rules and regulations for everything, for who can talk, for putting things on the agenda, and for voting. There is an increasing amount of limitations that block senators for making and passing legislation, and that affects their morale. This doesn’t mean they haven’t passed anything – they actually have done quite a few things, but if your token accomplishment is still the passage and implementation of all-gender restrooms, something that was passed a year ago, we really have to question how frequent these accomplishments are – and this is coming from their PR guy.
This is not anyone’s fault. This is not the Senators fault. This is not anyone who is running’s fault, nor Grant, nor Melissa’s. It is the fault of the various bureaucratic and excessive policy procedures. We need to keep the passion for change that Senators come in with. I want to limit these policies by talking to current Senators, and those that have dropped because of the various bureaucracy issues. This is seriously not supposed to happen. In fact, it has become a running joke during Senate meetings that we spend way too much time on seemingly unimportant matters, often messaging each other through social media and criticizing the current meeting.
Second, transparency is an issue that almost all candidates have written about. In fact, I believe communications and the Public Relations team were one of the biggest talking points for candidates during the debate. Candidates claim that they want to bridge the gap between the student body and the government, but what is their master plan? Simply posting committee minutes online, or making more blog posts? Exactly how does that invigorate the student body? Two words: it doesn’t. The way to be transparent is to be visible on campus. Senators and leaders should be physically reaching out to students and groups by either visiting residence halls, dining locations, or student centers to make themselves visible and hear the concerns of the student body. These Senators were elected to represent their specific student body, but after being burnt out by bureaucracy and literal politics, we lose transparency and invigoration from both the student body and the student government. It’s as simple as repeatedly meeting different students and different voices to create real transparency – and sure, we can put minutes online too.
Lastly, and this is a topic close to me, is the topic of systemic and implicit racism around campus. When asked about diversity and race issues on campus at the Wednesday debate, none of the candidates had satisfactory answers, some more disappointing than others. It’s true, that racism exists, but it’s not explicitly visible. You’ll may never hear someone say anything something specifically bad about any race, but that doesn’t mean that there is implicit racism involved. As a Muslim who grew up post-9/11, these attacks on religion and race were very much apparent to me, so I realize the hurt and pain the Black community, the International community, and the LGBT+ community have felt. We need to start holding discussions with people who hold implicit racist beliefs, and target the problem at its core, rather than suggesting, for example, to ban the use of Yik Yak, which completely avoids the issue at hand. We need to educate. I am a huge proponent of the One Community program during Orientation, and we should expand that even further. We should be training Resident Advisors, Community Assistants, student leaders, and the average student body to talk about discrimination in a more explicit way than done now. It’s completely true that we’re better than that, but we need to find a way to get there in the first place.
In closing, this campaign serves as a write-in for our candidates to do better. I’m tired of hearing the same platforms that center on transparency and cookie-cutter issues. Remove the excessive bureaucracy that burns out Senators that decreases real change and impact. Remove the excessive bureaucracy that still allows racism to be rampant in our community on campus. Remove the bureaucracy that allows students to think poorly of their student government, despite their successes in the past few years. We simply have to do better.
~Saad