Now I know in the past I’ve used this column to degrade resolution making, even going so far as resolving to abandon the practice altogether, but for some reason this Jan. 1 felt just a little different. Yeah, I still spent the morning on the couch eating junk food and watching the Rose Parade, but there are a few shiny things hanging in the misty 2009 future that weren’t there before. I’m not just talking about the incoming president (a huge upgrade silver-lining basically everything else in national politics at the moment) this year also holds my last quarters at UCSD and the great big world beyond. So while I’m resolving to make the next two quarters some of my best, I also have some suggestions for my campus peers to consider adding to their lists.
A.S. Council, please resolve to tackle your bureaucratic laziness this year and give Tritons the student government we deserve, not one that has trouble doing the bare minimum. With a new fee referendum coming up in two weeks, you’ll already be focusing your efforts full force on getting students to bail you out. But what you should really be funneling this fresh enthusiasm toward is fixing the faulty practices that got you into this mess. I know it’s unrealistic to demand proactivity from a bunch of slate veterans whose backstage politicking maneuvered an election of unopposed races, but come on. Just because you and your 20 best friends are able to make totally self-interested control moves with a basically unlimited budget, doesn’t mean you should.
I challenge you to make 2009 the year of earning your title. And to save you the five months it will take to motion to form a subcommittee on the subject, form said committee, debate then table its findings for three weeks and finally pen an aptly titled yet ultimately toothless Resolution in Response to Guardian Columnist Remarks, I’ll even give you some starting ideas.
Figure out this Grove Caffe mess, and check in on all those other floundering enterprises while you’re at it. Once you’ve got that under control, stop wasting money in general. If you’re really running out of funding to the point that Sun God might be downsized (which you’re not, but that’s a different story) put yourselves on a spending diet by skipping the extravagant retreats and cutting back all those voluntary coalition memberships and lobbying campaigns. Those projects are important, but not if you can’t provide for the campus first. And on the topic of Sun God: make sure it’s awesome, because after last year’s festival it’s pretty clear that Associate Vice President of Programming Garrett Berg can’t be trusted with oversight responsibility alone.
University administrators, please resolve to not impede
the A.S. Council’s new mission in former-Vice-Chancellor-of-Student-Affairs-Joseph-Watson-like fashion. Obviously this council needs all the help it can get, so it might be nice to consider actually working hand-in-hand with Triton leaders, to make life more cheery for the campus’ most important constituency ‘mdash; its students.
While your 2008 efforts were noteworthy (props specifically to new VC of’ Student Affairs Penny Rue for at least adjusting her new office’s dreary status quo and University Events Office Director Martin Wollensen for all his hard work on the Loft and even Chancellor Marye Anne Fox for giving last year’s No on 8 rally the attention it deserved) you can do even more to stop hindering campus quality in 2009.
This can mainly be accomplished by demanding that satellite offices lighten up. Put an end to outrageous space rental charges so that the A.S. Council can put on events without spending half its budget on renting our own gym. Remind those overzealous Residential Security Officers that students are innocent until proven guilty. Conduct a massive overhaul of Student Health Services so we can get some help this flu season. And if nothing else, please do something about the campus meter maids and ticket appeal process ‘mdash; it shouldn’t take an epic two-month battle to overturn a parking ticket that was issued while the recipient had a permit in the first place.
Student organizations, specifically the Greek system, please resolve to go green in 2009. Random as it seems, this should be an easy goal for you, since so many of UCSD’s orgs are service oriented anyway. Yet somehow despite all this high-minded hoopla, the campus is still littered with the daily frenzy of flyers and periodic rush-week posters.
Now I’m normally not one to get all save-the-trees on people, but this really is getting ridiculous. Not only are you littering Library Walk and consequently making a huge hassle for whatever custodian is charged with cleaning up after you that day, you’re also failing to attract people to your events. The flyer thing is futile, so why not copy the success of those ever-controversial Library Walk evangelicals? They come armed with only a kooky sign and a booming voice but are always surrounded by interested students. Or just go digital and use Facebook ‘mdash; you’ll gain interest by blending in with the parties we actually want to attend, and the rejection won’t seem so personal when people choose to ignore.