In the past, UF Student Government elections have been marked by how relatively uneventful they were. This changed with Access Party’s victory last Spring and has only been compounded by the emergence of the Impact Party — and the maybe-not-so-coincidental dissolving of the Swamp Party — this semester. The tension in the air has been palpable and a frequent topic of discussion in both the Alligator office and campus at large.
After much consideration, as well as meetings with representatives from both parties, the Editorial Board of the Alligator has ultimately decided to endorse the Access Party.
With regards to their respective platforms, both parties make excellent proposals which would do a tremendous amount of good for UF’s campus, as well as for the experience of the Student Body. As a matter of fact, they overlap in a number of places: Both want to reintroduce the Walk Safe program and recognize it as a valuable source of safety for students. Both also want to bring a farmers market to campus, allocate funds to ensure the renovation of Norman Hall and the Music Building and create a student closet that would provide professional clothing for students who would otherwise not be able to afford such wear. All of these are objectively good proposals which we would like to see put into practice.
However, the ambitions of Access far surpass that of Impact, especially when considering UF’s long-term future. Much of Impact’s campaign has revolved around showing students immediate results; indeed, they have accused Access of intentionally slowing down proceedings in the Senate in the name of partisan politics.
This assessment isn’t quite correct: All of the ambitions outlined in Access’ platform (both from last Spring and this Fall) are positive changes which take time to implement and will not be immediately visible to the Student Body. Most of the initiatives of this nature concern the financial burden placed on students. Given the democratic nature of SG as well as pre-existing legislation and the ever-present grind of bureaucracy, it will take years for these changes to take place. Regardless of the timeliness or lack thereof, we feel comfortable in asserting that these changes, such as working to better compensate grad students, decreasing the SG fees in every student’s tuition and fighting to reform parking services, will only occur under an Access Party government.
Additionally, Access’ platform touches upon an aspect of governance which is critically neglected by Impact’s: comprehensive representation. As good as Impact’s platform sounds, it neglects to advocate for better representation of minority demographics on campus, including LGBTQ+ students, minorities and international students. In contrast, this is an essential element of the Access platform.
Prominent universities like UF ought to embody the ideals of progress and forward-thinking. Although Impact has championed its platform as imminently accomplishable, it fails to strive for bigger and better things. Access Party’s ideals envision a higher standard for UF, even if we as students may not be around to see those ideals come to fruition. When the day comes that we become proud alumni, don’t we want to be able to say we helped enable UF to be the best it could be? It is for this reason we endorse Access for Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s election.
