In an election year turned upside down by the biggest Tea Party south of Boston and an overwhelming distaste for whoever just happens to be in office, UF students will be given the opportunity today and Wednesday to mirror their detestation of the status quo — or just vote arbitrarily and strike those special voting pens down a party line simply to collect an “I Voted” sticker so your sororities will feed you.
Or you won’t care either way.
We hope all of you will reconsider that last part, though, because as much as you want to think it’s all the same, it doesn’t concern you and you just don’t care, here’s the truth: You should care about Student Government elections.
After all, these are the people holding the megaphone to the student voice governing millions of your dollars. And although we think all parties would do a fine job in their fancy suits, we’re endorsing the independents.
These are the 24 students who realized they couldn’t run with a specific party due to a filing error and still decided to join forces and fight for what they believe in.
Independent Coalition officials spoke to us Monday about accountability in a way we couldn’t disagree with.
The independents want to get rid of frivolities like end-of-year awards ceremonies and abolish certain SG perks, including spending on parking decals for SG officials, food money for the same officials and more than $100 a month for a handful of leaders.
This should hit home for you — it’s coming directly out of your pocket. Sure, it’s a small sum against the multi-million-dollar budget, but think about it this way: Would you hand a $10 bill to an SG official who asked you to help him park on campus? Or would you feel that if you have to pay for your own parking or find another mode of transportation, he should, too?
We agree that SG officials work hard and need help with expenses, but that’s what we pay their salaries for. When it comes to necessities like food, parking and cell phones, we have to draw the line.
And what do the independents want to do with the money? Give it back to you by expanding programs like GatorWell.
And speaking such political verbal death as eliminating government perks, the Independent Coalition of Students recognizes this is only realistic if the right people are elected, and unfortunately, they’re the only ones who are willing to get it done.
We aren’t saying the Unite Party or the Progress Party are horrible choices. In fact, we support and agree with many of their platform points No one can deny the effectiveness, for example, of President Ashton Charles’, a Unite Party member, reconstruction of the accountability standards SG committee members are forced to adhere to or the Unite Party’s effectiveness in its successful completion of its student-generated platform points.
We support the Unite Party’s desire to expand fair pricing in off-campus housing, and we absolutely support the Progress Party’s goals to optimize bus routes based on ridership volume. But with issues like those, we don’t anticipate any opposition. It’s easy to get behind a platform everyone agrees on, and it’s also easy to make those things happen.
What’s difficult is standing up for a policy change that might make some people angry but ultimately represents a step toward a student government we can trust.
