In a presidential race packed with potential and multiple competent candidates, the Guardian endorsement for the A.S. Council’s top position came down to ideas. While Colin Parent may not have the charisma of Phil Palisoul, Dave Hansen or even Jenn Brown, he has the most thoughtful and realistic agenda. Equally important, Parent has the determination and wherewithal to put his plans into practice.
Though Parent lacks executive experience on the A.S. Council, he has participated in virtually every other level of UCSD student government from the college level up. On experience alone, he is a very close second only to Brown.
As the current commissioner of services and enterprises, Parent is best known for his work on the Triton Taxi expansion to Tijuana and the Gaslamp District. These expansions of service were his main campaign promise when he ran for his position last year, and he came through with results.
Parent also proved his mettle with the other A.S. services and enterprises, as illustrated by his work to significantly increase the number of note-takers for A.S. Lecture notes — and at the same time raising pay and decreasing operating expenses of the office.
Though the official platform of Parent’s Action slate appears markedly similar to that of Brown’s Students First slate, Parent has distinguished himself from the at-times repetitive and tiresome rhetoric with ideas that are both innovative and also realistic.
A hot-button issue for most UCSD students is parking, and Parent’s strategy for increasing the number of student spaces has the best shot at being successful, even though the UCSD administration has virtually all say in matters of parking and transportation. Instead of pleading for unattainable goals such as an all-student parking structure, Parent would lobby the administration to change its development plans to include more, cheaper parking structures.
The two new parking structures on campus were designed by well-known architects, and for that reason they were quite expensive. Parent is reasonable in arguing that UCSD doesn’t need to spend exorbitant sums on parking garages with grasshopper legs — that simply building basic parking structures to solve the parking woes on campus, without the frills, would be a much better use of university money. It would mean more spots for everyone, including students.
On the topic of athletics, Parent vows to fully fund Triton Tide and is in favor of passing the athletics fee referendum. As editor of the Muir Quarterly, he has experience working with a student organization and knows first-hand what it’s like to deal with the A.S. Council from the perspective of a student-run organization.
The A.S. president needs to be someone who can get things done. Having one’s heart in the right place is certainly a good thing, but it’s not enough. Though the majority of presidential candidates have worthy intentions, Parent has proven above anyone else that he gets concrete results, and results are what UCSD needs.
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