Reed-Simonson Platform Analysis

Quick Hits
Favorite Plank: "Save class time by allowing professor evaluations to be done online"
Least Favorite Plank: "Provide materials to encourage students to consider living on-campus"
Unique Plank: "An iPod/Droid application, eventsUNi, that maintains an events calendar including all on-campus activities and events and could be customized for student’s interests by using event tags"
Theme: A couple new ideas, a lot of fluff, and it certainly isn't a platform for change.

Student Interaction

The only real substantial idea in this section is the iPod/Droid application that would maintain a calender of all on-campus activities. Naturally, this would mean there needs to be an actual calendar of events and on-campus activities before you can make it into an app. Interesting concept, but might be difficult to pull off and would it be worth all the work? How many students would use it?

Internships

This is a nice section to have on a platform for a change. The only thing that needs to be addressed is whether or not they are advocating for more paid internships? Or internships just for credit? They also set a numerical goal that they can strive to reach in increasing them by 25%. My question regarding that: how many are there now and what is 25% of that?

Residence Life

Having a connection with the Department of Residence (DOR) is very important to NISG. However the communication structure with RA's through the DOR is very complicated and more often than not, RA's aren't accessible to those in NISG leadership. Next, I want to tackle Dining-Dollars at area restaurants. First question: how? Each restaurant has a different system. Different prices. I may be wrong, but if this was to happen, the DOR would have to develop a whole new system for how Dining Dollars work. I'd like to see some facts on this and who they have talked to in the DOR about making this happen. Finally, my least favorite plank on the platform: encouraging students to consider on-campus living. Yes, it is important for a first year student to live on campus and experience the dorm culture and make friends etc. But after that, it is a personal preference. You can throw every statistic you want at me about "people who live on campus get better grades," but part of the college experience is about growing up - being on your own. Besides, the DOR provides plenty of material on their own about living on-campus. NISG shouldn't be in the business of telling students where to live.

Academics

The grad pact idea is a good one. Schools like Wartburg really stress graduating in 4 years. Why can't UNI be set up to do the same? Also, to establish a pass-no report system for freshmen is already available. It is called auditing a class. If you wanted to actually make more of a "system" it would be incredibly difficult. Students wouldn't utilize it and no one has time to make full use of their electives as it is now! This also conflicts with the previous plank about the Grad Pact and graduating in 4 years. I do LOVE the idea of allowing professor evaluations to be done online. It could be done through MyUNIverse or an outside online application. Either way, this is a good idea to seriously explore.

Lobbying

No new ideas here. I guess I would be surprised if a candidate didn't have a section on lobbying though. This is a no brainer.

Safety:

To me this was all fluff. We have the UNI Alert system already for notifications. I suppose it is nice to hear they want to keep the SafeRide.

Executive Accountability:

I really think the progress updates on the website are a great idea. I'd encourage them to inform the Northern Iowan of their progress updates as well. Transparency is always a good thing and it is nice to hear from these candidates that they will be open.

Greek Life:

Honestly, I liked their introductory paragraph about this section and the overall goal. The ideas to achieve that goal however, are fluff. This is pandering to a voting block at its finest. (In fact they even are making a point to say that they are the only candidates with a section about Greek Life in their platform). Restructuring cabinet positions can happen without it being a goal listed on your platform. Also, Greeks do receive fair funding opportunities from NISG, so it is interesting that they pointed that out as a problem. I would question this section if I were you.

Conclusion:

Overall this platform is average. If there was no competition in the race, I would say that this would be a winning platform. The reality is, there isn't enough substance and specifics are lacking. The platform does have a few new ideas, that could spark some interest. It also has a few ideas that could spark some backlash. The platform fails to have any goals towards "going green" or diversity, both of which are very important issues and ones that they will play a key role in during their term in office.