With A.S. election season already underway, it’s excellent to see candidates excited and races contested for a change. Last spring’s listless campaigns gave way to an equally passive council, and this board hopes candidates will carry their energy beyond the April 10 result announcements, and onto the council floor next year. Though the 2008-09 council does deserve a hearty golf clap for nearly meeting status quo, the future student government will inherit a herd of long-ignored elephants, which if left unaddressed any further threaten to evict councilmembers from their chambers.
Candidates are historically skilled at pounding the Library Walk pavement during election season, merrily meeting with any student who will listen. But once positions are secured and nametags are crisply laminated, councilmembers can’t set their Facebooks back to private quickly enough. The new council must kick this secrecy to the curb and try on a little transparency (if only because it’ll look better than those bulk-ordered T-shirts). Councilmembers are experts at promoting transparency when they want something ‘mdash; like $19.82 more per quarter, for instance ‘mdash; but it’s their job to communicate with students all throughout the year, both to keep us informed and to collect feedback and suggestions.
And speaking of the recent activity-fee raise, next year’s council will be responsible for all those sweet nothings we were whispered in exchange for a pledge of our love and fiscal support. Nearly 60 percent of the fee increase is going toward programming, student organizations, services and operations of the Associated Students, and with this money the future council must make some big adjustments to current party-planning practices. Events must be accessible ‘mdash; the days of ticket shortages and turned-away students need to end immediately. This isn’t to say the Sun God Festival is everything. Traditionally popular events like Bear Gardens have been scarce this year and with so much of the fee increase flowing directly into the A.S. Programming goblet, students expect to see the office expand its campus community-building projects.
UCSD’s alcohol- and speech-policy revisions will have a huge impact on student life, and undergrads rely on councilmembers to protect our interests. The council must select its most diligent student representatives to serve as informed and active committee members. Those representatives should foster communication with the student body to keep undergrads informed about the policies that will impact us most.
Perhaps this council’s most egregious oversight is its monetary negligence. The incoming Vice President of Finance and Resources will have their work cut out for them ‘mdash; with a myriad of deteriorating enterprises, none of which bring the council appreciable revenue. Students are tired of seeing their money thrown away over a coffee shop, and if current councilmembers can’t pull together a viable solution for the Grove Caffe, that will be the incoming group’s first order of business.
But most importantly, representatives must keep in mind how and why they were elected ‘mdash; and keep in touch with the students who put them in office. While it may serve candidates to consider these issues during their campaign discourse, students won’t be served until that talk turns to walk.