In your time at UF, you’ll spend $2,082 on Student Government. Shouldn’t you have a say on how it’s spent?
You’ll have the opportunity to slate for the Student Senate this week, from today through Wednesday. As a student senator, you’ll have the power to positively impact your campus, improve student life and make a difference.
If you decide to come out to the Reitz Union and slate, you’ll see a sharp contrast between the two political parties on campus.
On one side, the Swamp Party will provide more of the same: rising fees and few results. On the other, you’ll get real change and real results from the Students Party.
The Students Party is committed to making Student Government fair, accountable and inclusive. We’re the party that truly represents the diversity of our student body. Republicans, Democrats and Independents have come together to make sure every Gator has a voice.
This election and this university are too important for anyone to sit on the sidelines. I hope you’ll choose to join the new leadership of the Students Party to continue to move this campus forward. SG ought to be a nonpartisan organization with the sole purpose of improving student services. Instead, we’ve got incompetence and inefficiency: $45,000 of your money unnecessarily thrown away on a concert that never happened, ineffective crony appointments, the university’s reputation jeopardized and student services gutted.
All students at this university pay into SG. All students should have the same access to it. All students should receive the same benefits from it, and all students should be represented by it. This is your chance to take a stand and make a difference. SG can change. It can be forced to put the interests of students first.
But it can only happen if you exercise the ultimate power you have over government: the ballot box.
When elected, the Students Party will cut waste, end corruption, restore fiscal sanity and fund vital student services. While some in SG are sure to put their own political ambitions ahead of delivering for our university, the Students Party will always put students first.
It’s time we have a student government that is worthy of serving the Gator Nation. If you want to learn more about our party, please visit http://www.studentspartyuf.com, or you can check us out on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ufstudentsparty.
Daniella Saetta is the UF’s Students Party President. This guest column ran on page 7 on 9/9/2013 under the headline "Get involved with the Students Party." This post reflects corrections from a minor copy editing error.
