The Student Body demanded change in the Spring election.
We turned out in record numbers because we believed Student Government could finally change.
And we didn’t demand a change in just style or appearance.
We voted because there was finally an opportunity to fundamentally change the way SG operates.
For far too long, SG has been run by the few, for the few.
Student Body President Joselin Padron-Rasines (Access), her fellow executive officers, and like-minded senators such as Michael Christ (Graduate, Access), Nardin Derias (CALS, Access) and I are hard at work making sure the promises of reforming SG, stamping out corruption and improving student life are accomplished.
Of course, that’s going to upset the same backroom political operators that have run SG for generations. They’re kicking and screaming because the students have finally had enough.
We’re finally holding them accountable for raising our fees, wasting our money and steering positions and projects to their cronies.
They’re doing their best to distract from the effort to reform.
They use the two remaining branches they hold control over — the judicial and legislative — to logjam SG. The judicial branch refuses to perform its job.
The legislative branch seems to think its only jobs are to rig the rules governing SG and launch political careers.
My colleagues in the majority are not their own decision makers.
They are given orders from the top. They’ve bought into the idea that serving themselves first and the students second is the right thing to do.
There are a few honest brokers of compromise, but they are being drowned out by the chorus of corruption.
The guardians of gridlock can continue to peddle in clever hashtags in the pursuit of their own political ambitions.
We’ll continue to deliver the change that students have demanded.
And we’ll ensure vital student services continue to be provided.
Preston Jones is a UF student senator (Hume, Access) and political science sophomore
[A version of this story ran on page 7 on 7/27/15]
