INTRODUCTION
These are
The Post
’s endorsements for the 2014 Student Senate elections. We, the newspaper’s top four editors, spent the campaign season diligently following the candidates and carefully weighing their platforms. We attended debates (though not our own, unfortunately) and conducted private endorsement interviews. You will find our conclusions below.
The bottom line: Senate is broken. This year’s body has been marred by doldrums, numerous resignations and a presidency that ended in handcuffs. Each of the tickets has said changes are necessary for next year, but the extent and direction of those changes is of utmost importance. Change (like President Obama’s 2008 campaign) is the hot topic right now.
As you will see, we did not choose candidates from one ticket. You, dear voter, can (and arguably should) mix and match. Though there are significant disparities in their platforms, we believe the candidates are capable of working together. Plus, a little butting of heads sometimes produces the best solutions.
The goal for these endorsements is to offer our opinions and explain the reasoning behind them. We hope that by reading them, you will be better educated about the issues before casting your vote.
Oh, and speaking of votes, make sure you do that on Thursday. You’ll get an email linking you to the ballot. Just do it — it takes, like, 10 minutes.
(Endorsements represent the majority opinion of The Post's executive editors.)
MEGAN MARZEC FOR PRESIDENT
Much of this campaign season’s discussion was stimulated by Restart’s platform, which many regard as radical. Its essential premise is to eliminate much, if not all, of the representational functions of Student Senate by transforming the roles of the senators into community organizers and having students vote on all resolutions and decide how much SAC funding is spent on which organizations.
We believe some of those proposals are idealistic (something about the strongest argument against direct democracy being a five-minute conversation with the average voter rings a bell), but we also think presidential candidate Megan Marzec has realistic expectations. She wants these changes and believes in them, but we see in her a capability to compromise on the implementation system without compromising her beliefs.
We are confident Marzec, who’s studying studio art, is not running to further her own career. She isn’t currently part of Student Senate, but she has been heavily involved in the Student Union. Her background demonstrates to us that she cares about problems that affect college students and wants to tackle them, but she isn’t interested in the status that goes along with student-government administration. That’s exactly what senate needs.
Her history in confronting administrators — like when she was arrested for protesting tuition hikes at a board of trustees meeting in 2013 — reassures us that her presidency would be marked by challenges to the status quo. We believe Marzec wouldn’t leave those closed-door meetings with the university’s top brass without tenaciously defending the student perspective.
Someone has to ask the tough questions about how the university’s tuition and tax dollars are spent. About the campus culture that enables sexual assault. About whether fee and tuition increases are necessary. About aging buildings and crumbling infrastructure. We are confident she will.
Under her leadership, senate has a real chance to transform itself from a symbol of inefficacy that looks good on members’ resumes into a student-centered body that holds actual meaning and relevance. Even if Marzec accomplishes only a sliver of what Restart campaigned on, it will still be more progress than we’ve seen senate make in the past three years.
ZAINAB KANDEH FOR VICE PRESIDENT
This one is a bit of a curveball. Zainab Kandeh is running for president under the Action ticket, but we strongly recommend her as a write-in candidate for the vice president position.
It’s not that we think Kandeh wouldn’t make a good president, nor do we disapprove of either of the vice presidential candidates. But we would like to see Megan Marzec as president, and we think Kandeh would be a valuable member of senate’s executive board.
The vice president is primarily responsible for managing the inner workings of senate. We believe Kandeh is the ideal person to become the intermediary between Marzec’s bold ideas and the existing senate structure.
We think Kandeh, like Marzec, is also running for senate for the right reasons. She cares about students and wants to improve their experience at the university. She recognizes the organization is broken and wants it to change, even though her vision isn’t as radical as Marzec’s. But that’s a good thing.
We think the combination of Marzec’s vision and mettle with Kandeh’s knowledge and leadership would be the ideal team to lead senate toward substantive change.
CARTER PHILLIPS FOR TREASURER
Out of the three candidates for treasurer, we think Carter Phillips is the best qualified to lead the Student Activities Commission and manage its funds.
Every candidate we interviewed acknowledged that SAC is overly complex and requires reform. We believe Phillips’ proposal to retool the system — with a tiered approach — is the most comprehensive and realistic. Plus, his three years of SAC experience have given him the know-how to navigate its treacherous waters.
The participatory budget model touted by Restart, which would give the entire student body a say in which student groups receive funding and how much, is one of those ideas that looks good on paper but in reality would prove impractical.
It would be a mistake to allow students to vote for how SAC funding is allocated. Students would vote to give funding to the organizations they’re involved in, and the smaller groups would miss out. Phillips understands the flaw in that model.
The problem with SAC is not that it’s undemocratic. Rather, its problems lie in the fact that the application process is overly complex, too few organizations know how to take advantage of it and its decisions are not transparent. Phillips understands those challenges and has a plan to fix them.
But even if we supported the participatory budget model, we would recommend Carter for the job. His experience and knowledge will be key in implementing any reforms to the system.
No matter who fills out the presidential and vice presidential positions in senate next year, we think Phillips is the ideal treasurer.
