Guest Post: Ramblings of a Has-Been and Soon-to-be Lame Duck

I was approached earlier this week by the current and former vice presidents of NISG who wanted to write a guest post on what they thought of the platforms for the two Presidential tickets. I have re-printed what they wrote in full, with no editing. They are harsh, honest and speak from experience with dealing many of the frustrating aspects of making a difference through student government. Their post is full of advice for candidates present and future, and offers a unique perspective into the workings of student government.

The post that follows comes from a combination of their experience serving students and writing platforms, as well as an expression of a desire we all share: to make UNI great through an effective, vibrant student government. Enjoy.

Ramblings of a Has-Been and Soon-to-be Lame Duck:

Paul Andersen and Blake Findley

We want to start this critique with a clear understanding of its intent and purpose. Neither of us have made a decision for a particular candidate. There is so much more that needs to take place before that can happen. We want to pose the questions and address our concerns in order for the student body at UNI to have a better understanding of how you will be working for them and what you will do when working for them. We both feel it is our job, and obligation, as both current and former vice presidents to do so. Consequently, we don’t pull any punches and can be a little harsh. However, we’ve both had our platforms critiqued before, so we know how it feels. Thus, we want to emphasize that we are critiquing your platforms and not you as individuals.  In fact, some of the things we’ll call you out on, are mistakes we made with our platforms and were called out for.

Jared and Tanner:

There is very little on your website beyond fluff. You have a specific vision? Great. What is it?  You’ve had great experiences at UNI? Wonderful. How is that going to help? You want to facilitate a great student government? Splendid. What does that look like? (Though, we do like the use of the word ‘facilitate.’ That is an essential part of the job.) You want to benefit the students? You’d better. But how?  Essentially, this platform is reminiscent of Washington: full of fancy language and abstract ideas, but very little content. The ideas that are here show a lack of understanding of what the NISG president and vice president actually do. Have you met with a former executive about what the jobs entail?

Engage:

One of the few concrete ideas you do present is to create an Inter-Club Council to “connect the student organizations and residence halls on campus to NISG.” Again, sounds great. But . . . this is what NISG is supposed to do. Creating another middle man would only make NISG seem more elitist than it already does and add even more to the bureaucratic layers of the institution. That said, coming up with a way to get senate to better do this is a great idea; we know NISG can do better. But creating another council is not the way to do it.

You also mention a focus group pilot program. Is this in the residence halls? The Union? The Library? We don’t even know what you mean here, so if we’re not critiquing what you actually meant, feel free to correct us. That said, for several years, NISG has had meetings with students. There were monthly round tables inviting students to come speak on specific topics (e.g., international student issues, LGBTQ* issues, veteran issues, etc.) These were not well attended.  Additionally, NISG has been presenting to student organizations, even at their meetings, for years.  Very few organizations actually take us up on our offer to come present. Senators have office hours. They’re not utilized. So, the issue is not connecting students TO NISG. It’s getting them to CARE about NISG. If you have ideas on how to do this, go for it. We want this to happen more than almost anything else.

Promote:

We’re glad you think it’s important to promote the university in a positive way. We really are. But, this is obvious. What we really want to know is HOW you’re going to promote the university. An “inclusive campus government that serves every group on campus to the best of our abilities? Brilliant. But that says nothing.  That’s the entire point of student government. The key, though, is what are you going to do to make it inclusive. What are you going to do to serve the students? Particularly, what are you going to do that hasn’t already been done?

Additionally, Panther Fridays has already been initiated. And it’s successful, so you’d obviously continue it. There is nothing new here. If you want to make it better, great. Tell us how.

“We will also work closely with university departments to ensure appropriate funding for UNI, increase overall enrollment and promote UNI’s image as a top university.” Again, how are you going to do this? Also, you will work with the legislature to ensure appropriate funding, not university departments. Departments are just given a budget allocation based off of the overall amount of funding provided to UNI. And, you want to increase overall enrollment? Great, but UNI has a full time associate vice president to deal with this. Enrollment is much more complex than simply getting students here.  We need to keep them here. We need to provide them with equal scholarship opportunities, so they can afford to stay here. We also don’t to get “too many” students. And how, exactly, are you going to promote UNI’s image as a top university? We also want to add that your job is to advocate for the needs and concerns of the student body. Clearly, funding, enrollment and promotion are integral aspects of this, but keep in mind you don’t work in Governmental Relations, Admissions or University Relations.

Progress:

Again, with this paragraph, we want, we need specifics. What do you mean by an efficient student government? What does that look like? Also, the president and vice president don’t manage senate. senate manages senate, with guidance from the Speaker. And, the speaker is in charge of training senators. But let’s go along with the idea.  How are you going to train new members? And in what?  And what do you mean by other avenues?  And, if you’re not referring to Senate, but to the upper and/or lower cabinet, those members are not elected; you appoint them. We like that you want to “ensure the student body is getting the absolute best from its student government.” But, while that sentiment is nice, it’s meaningless. We want to know HOW you are going to do this. It should be a given that you want student government to do its best.

Katie and Renae:

We appreciate the work you put into your platform. But, your platform seems filled with buzzword and important issues, but void of many original ideas or actionable projects. Anyone can write about things that are important, but a leader needs to be able to articulate why they are important and specifically how they’re going to address the issue. You guys don’t do that, except in the case of the Women’s Center. As you say, your ticket exemplifies diversified involvement, but your platform fails to capitalize on that diverse experience.

Introduction: Your first sentence makes no sense. The student to faculty ratio doesn’t have much to do with being a comprehensive university, if that’s what you meant by a comprehensive approach.  If not, then we have no idea what you mean. We’re also not clear why you spend so much time talking about UNI in such broad generalities. If you’re trying to show off your knowledge of the university, it’s not working. Again, we’re not sure what the sentence “However, a prominent student focus requires extraordinary direction” even means. If you’re implying that, as NISG president and vice president, you would be doing that extraordinary direction of the university, you would be wrong. If you’re trying to say that you have the skills and experience to give valuable input to the administration, then say that. Not some pleasant sounding, idealistic, nonsensical point.

NISG education: The budget is public. As are requests for student government funds. So, what’s new here? Are you going to have hard copies? Send them to the student body? Write it in stone? And how are you going to educate students on funding? Katie, you should be doing that now, in your current position. And, if the issue is that the budget and bills for funding are not being put online, as they are supposed to, that’s a different issue altogether and you should say so.

You want to update the blog? Okay, the blog is supposed to be updated it already. You want to do it weekly? Daily? Say so. But, we might add, several tickets have said that in the past. It doesn’t happen and it won’t happen. You are going to be too busy doing your job to write about what you’re doing that frequently. 

The monthly newsletters is great idea. But, by no means is that a new idea. Jordan and KaLeigh and Tom and Blake had versions of this. 

You want to live-stream senate meetings? Great idea. But, senate has already discussed doing this and moved forward on it. But, do you really want students to see senators on their laptops, phones, not paying attention? How many students is live streaming really going to impact? We think presenting and interacting with students in person should be the focus of your attention.

Campus Resources:

You want to make MyUNIverse more user friendly? Okay, that’s not a bad idea, but how? Why are you focusing on this campus resource? And meeting with University Relations is a good start, but you need to have some ideas when you go meet with them. You can’t just state a problem and expect others to come up with the ideas to fix it.

Actually, Katie could sit on the Maucker Union Advisory Board, but the president does not automatically sit on the board. And, we think that, while the chalkboard isn’t a bad idea, there are several other more important things to address in the union. Like the lack of accessibility. There also used to be a chalk board and it wasn’t utilized very well, so you should have a plan on how to use it.

Lower Cabinet Accountability:

What cabinet positions do you actually think you need or should you focus more on your executive cabinet? How are you going to motivate them when this is a volunteer position? Most of your comments are about continuing initiatives and ideas already developed. What NEW things are you going to do with your lower cabinet directors? Also, we like the idea of monthly reports, but, this has been done in the past. They generally don’t do them. What are you going to do if that be the case? Fire them? We do, however, like the idea of large group meetings of lower cabinet directors. That would be an excellent way to make them feel a part of NISG, which may, in fact, address the issue of them not doing what they are required to do.

Alumni:

What is this new director of Alumni Relationships going to bring to the relationship between CATS and Director of Alumni relationships? What are they going to implement through NISG? There isn’t a lot of funding to put on new initiatives. How is this different from the opportunity presented by CATS?

Local Government:

Important topic. However, simply notifying students to attend city council meetings isn’t going to work. This needs fleshed out.

Fraternity and Sorority Life:

You want to improve communication with FSL. What specifically are you going to do? What events are you going to bring to campus? While we like the broad idea, there is no detail presented here. Are both of you in support of expansion? If so, is there a cultural change and a buy-in by administration that needs to take place? Have you looked into what steps Panhel and IFC have taken so far?

Transportation:

We like the idea of adding a route, as would everyone, but where are you going to get the money? We have exhausted all current advertising possibilities. Are you going to raise student fees for this? If Dolly’s Taxi is the way to lower the prices, this is not your idea. It’s Kevin and Paul’s.

We like the idea of extending parking availability, but Public Safety is pretty flexible if you call them and explain why you’re still on campus.

Sustainability:

What is your vision for the bike program? All you said is you want it to continue and “expand it in multifaceted directions.”  Um, what in the world does that mean? We have no idea.

Have you met with anyone in DOR about putting recycling options in the hallways? That discussion should take place. We also recommend meeting with someone from Facilities and/or Grounds. Again, great idea, little detail presented.

Women’s Center:

Fantastic idea. You’ve done the research and you’re clearly passionate about the issue. If all your ideas were as fleshed out as this one, you’d have an excellent platform.

Graduate College:

We agree it’s great that Renae is a graduate student and can thus provide an excellent perspective to student government. However, this engagement should not begin and end with Renae. How else are you going to engage them? We also don’t understand how having Renae as vice president will “showcase research and varied accomplishments,” since undergraduate student leaders don’t do the same for undergraduate research and accomplishments. 

Multicultural Students:

We like the idea of having students go through NCBI, as we have completed the training ourselves, but how are you going to get a majority of students, or even just leaders of student orgs, to go through this training, even if it is the new 45 minute training that has been started?

Additionally, getting students to use the Diversity Matters fund is great. Please, do that. But you’re going to have to do something different than what is being done. You haven’t explained what that is.

LGBTQ* Students:

While this training is great, this platform plank does nothing new to really improve the situation for LGBTQ* students. At least, we would like to see some ideas on HOW you would encourage students/staff to do the training. 

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As you can see, there is plenty to be said about each of the ticket's platforms. Likely, this will be the beginning of a conversation between the students and candidates to develop a clear vision of what the future of NISG should be. Hopefully the candidates have been taking notes and making plans furiously, in preparation of next week's LIVE senate/ presidential debate. That's right, LIVE. I'm currently working on getting technology set up so the blog will be able to offer live coverage, commentary and comments during the debate and after!

To be part of the live studio audience, be sure to be in the Maucker Union Coffeehouse (main floor) next Tuesday night sometime between 5 and 7 p.m. (time currently TBD).

Until then, stay warm!