Trevor and Beth Platform Analysis

Quick Hits

Favorite Plank: “To increase the benefits student organizations provide, we would push to award the top twenty student organizations on campus with roll over funds in the NISG accounts.“

This idea is fantastic. Director of Administration and Finance, Dakotah Reed, routinely mentions that a lot of money handed out by the Organization and Finance Committee never actually gets spent. Rewarding organizations that work hard with extra funds is an amazing way to motivate organizations to do better and to let students get more out of their Student Services Fee.

Least Favorite Plank: “We will actively promote inclusivity across by celebrating the individuality and value each student brings to campus. As written by John Donne, 'No man is an island, entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent.' In other words, any action that detracts from one student detracts from the entire student body. We will diligently seek to preserve and further equality and inclusivity at UNI in order to foster a welcoming community.”

This is my least favorite because I don’t even know what it is. The platform is short and to-the-point, except here. I don’t think this tells me anything that I couldn’t reasonably infer about a ticket running for Student Body President and Vice President.

Most Unique Plank: “We would work with the Director of Public Safety (D.P.S.) to develop an email notification system for parking tickets”.

I know many students -- not myself, fortunately -- who were unaware that they parked in an illegal spot and racked up 3-4 tickets. An e-mail would have solved this issue. However, I think that it’s going to take work to implement.

Theme: This platform is short and to the point. To me, I feel like they are trying to connect with the most casual voters. They have strong, unique ideas that the average student can identify with and which will hopefully (for Trevor and Beth) get votes.


Trevor and Beth's full platform can be found on the website: http://www.trevorandbeth.com/

Specific Analysis

Visibility/Transparency

I like the idea of a weekly video blog, but how realistic is that? The job adds 40 hours a week to being a full-time student, so I have my doubts that they can continue something like this for an entire year. Unless we start seeing some video blog entries during the campaign, I wouldn’t expect it during their term.

Stewardship

I think installing motion sensor lights is a great idea and a relatively easy sell to the university. Great plank.

Bicycle Recycle

This is an idea that was beginning to get discussed this year in the Student Affairs committee. Other campuses do a similar program, and I’m eager to see what Trevor and Beth can come up with. My primary concern is getting enough quality, and safe, bikes for this program to be effective. If they can find enough bikes and keep the rental fee at a reasonable rate, it sounds great.

Parking

Other than the email notification that I mentioned earlier, there isn’t much on this topic. They don’t provide any possible solutions for more parking, or even address that it’s a problem worth looking into. I know it’s a big challenge to fix, but for many students, it’s one of the biggest frustrations with UNI.

Inclusivity

From what I’m told from the Director of Diversity and Student Life, this committee already exists informally. It’s great that they want to make it a formal committee, but is that all there is on the diversity front? In years past, diversity issues have encompassed entire pages of platforms. Having one plank of something already in place isn’t sufficiently addressing concerns. Just like Kyle and Brendan, I hope that this ticket goes back and consults with people who know the minority students' issues. Then, I hope they come back to the student body with some real ideas to fix the problems. 

One other notable group left off this platform is Greeks. For the small percentage of student body that they represent, they go above and beyond with involvement on campus. Two of the last three student body presidents were Greek, and this year’s senate has had more than its fair share of them. Greeks are a large voting constituency, and I’m perplexed by the decision to leave them off.

Fiscal Policy

As a former Chair of the Organization and Finance Committee, I can say that they are dead on in saying that something needs to change. I think that consolidating the funds can help with the application, but I’m still wary that it’s the grand solution to the problem. The major problem, from my perspective, is that the committee can’t include every type of request in the funding guidelines. This leads to ambiguous guidelines and inconsistent interpretations from year to year. I know that the committee is currently working on changing the guidelines, and it’s my hope that these candidates attend the meetings (every Monday evening). Otherwise, I’m very happy that they are addressing this problem and I look forward to seeing their ideas.

Student Organizations

Giving the “top 20 student organizations” some roll-over NISG funds is probably my favorite plank of all three tickets. If implemented effectively, this would reward the best organizations for consistently being the best. I would be cautious about moving forward, though. The guidelines need to be airtight and as fair as possible. It’s my hope that this ticket consults many people in developing this program.