As the sun set over a paper-littered Turlington Plaza last night, the Editorial Board was faced with a decision.
After listening to Student Government leaders from the Unite, Progress and Orange and Blue parties extol the virtues of their diverse platforms, we have decided to endorse the Progress Party for this semester's elections.
Although the Progress Party is a baby in terms of age, it seems ready to stop the childish bickering in Student Senate and start fixing the broken system.
While the Unite Party made lofty promises for a new student union, the Progress Party recognized funding a $56-million project would be downright irresponsible given the current economic climate.
Likewise, instead of building a separate 24-hour study center, the Progress Party will work to make another centrally located and pre-existing building extend its hours.
We can't support building a brand new study center when extending the CIRCA lab's hours would cost about $50,000 a year, according to party president Dave Schneider.
The Progress Party is dedicated to maintaining fiscal responsibility. This means scaling back on executive perks that don't affect all students.
While the Orange and Blue Party calls to eliminate all SG executive salaries, we think the Progress Party takes a more realistic approach by making the salaries need-based. Being an SG official is taxing and time-consuming, and no student should be discouraged from political participation based on their socio-economic status.
In addition to encouraging all students to run for elected office, the Progress Party advocates online voting, which will increase voter turnout. Only two out of 10 students vote in campus elections, which is when students determine who will be in charge of the $14 million budget made of students' Activity & Service Fees, which are collected through tuition.
Not only does the Progress Party want to increase voter turnout, it wants people to know how elected officials vote. The entire Progress Party has signed FERPA waivers, which gives students access to things like voting records and Senate minutes. This shows the Progress Party wants senators to be held accountable.
We agree that a handshake outside of Matherly Hall should not be the last contact students have with their elected representatives. For that reason, we support the Progress Party's decision to make all of its senators' voting records available on the party's Web site.
The Editorial Board also supports the intiative to ban "I Voted" stickers, which was drafted by two Orange and Blue Party senators.
Last year, SG ordered more "I Voted" stickers than the number of students at UF. Not to mention, there were 50,000 stickers left over from the previous election.
More important than the waste of money, though, is the fact that these stickers can be used for political coercion.
An anonymous letter to the Alligator published in February of 2008 details how sorority members were required to bring back "I Voted" stickers and pledge to vote for a certain party. According to the letter, if a sister didn't bring back a sticker, she would be punished.
Although the letter was submitted anonymously, we see no reason to take chances.
The Editorial Board believes that the election of Progress Party senators and the passing of the proposed anti-sticker intiative will increase SG transparency and derail the current monopoly of power.
But while we encourage you to vote for the Progress Party and in favor of the intiative to ban "I Voted" stickers, we really just encourage you to vote this Tuesday and Wednesday.
