By Allison Maass/Murphy News Service
All Campus Elections at the University of Minnesota are coming up, and current undergraduate student body president Joelle Stangler will be running for a second term.
From April 15-17 students will have the chance to vote for president and vice president, at-large representatives and student senators for the Minnesota Student Association (MSA), the university’s undergraduate student government.
MSA held informational sessions recently on the elections to make sure all students knew about the positions and how to run for them.
The deadline for filing to run for any position in the All Campus Elections is Friday, March 13.
On Stangler’s agenda if she is re-elected is fixing the Student Service Fees (SSF) process, getting students more involved in the re-evaluation of administrative policies and working on a long term solution for cheaper tuition.
“I think a lot of the goals come down to getting students involved in the process from the front end, which isn’t a sexy topic. It isn’t easy to pitch that to people,” Stangler said.
There are four sub-committees that re-evaluate policies, and basically the only time students are allowed to give feedback is during the 30-day comment period.
“I have never gotten a response from my public comments. I comment on almost everything,” Stangler said.
The work has already started to get students who were elected by the student body, such as student senators and at-large representatives, onto these committees, Stangler said. The students who are currently appointed to these committees were never elected by their peers, and they are in charge of making serious decisions at the university.
“Students are given the luxury of seeing it once it’s done, but not working with it when it’s a working document, which becomes an issue because things like the plagiarism policy is really strict,” Stangler said.
The process of updating the consent policy is another example of major decisions that could be made at the university with very little student feedback.
“There would be no opportunity to make sure the students were in the room,” Stangler said. “We outnumber everyone else, and so it just seems silly that we don’t have any place in this conversation.”
Stangler and her running mate, Abeer Syedah, said they want to focus on college affordability next year, and not just short term solutions.
“I am so sick of saying we need a tuition freeze because it’s good for students, because it’s not good for all students. It’s so silly how much of a Band-Aid solution it is and it’s not actually addressing real affordability,” Stangler said.
Syedah is majoring in political science and is a community advisor for Middlebrook Hall, student administrative assistant to the Dean’s Office of the Humphrey school, attends Sexual Health Awareness and Disease Education events and was a tour guide.
The preferred name policy that is now being implemented is the accomplishment Syedah is most proud of from this year. Next year she plans to tackle issues with diversity and continue the push to change the sexual assault policies if she is elected.
As for Stangler, her favorite accomplishment from this year is pushing the administration to re-evaluate the university’s sexual assault policies is what Stangler thinks is her biggest accomplishment as president this year. Currently if someone is found guilty of sexual assault, a punishment they might receive is writing an essay, and Stangler said that’s “not really providing somebody with the proper punishment for the crime.”
“If sexual assault is such a big deal that it gets national attention it should be an administrator priority to evaluate these policies so we are ahead of the curve instead of behind it,” Stangler said.
John Reichl, undergraduate student body vice president, said Stangler’s work on the university’s sexual assault policies will be her legacy. “I think her passion in that area really shines through,” he said.
“It’s been a while since MSA has had a two term president. I think it would be really powerful having this knowledge and being able to govern,” Reichl said.
Starting to review and fix the SSF process is another project of MSA’s that will carry over into next year. Stangler said there is nothing concrete, but there have been general conversations, surveys and work started to creating a resolution.
Inconsistent reasons for cutting student group’s budgets, who the selectors and people on the committee are, students with no accounting background managing $50,000 plus budgets and no comprehensive audit process are just a few of the problems with SSF that need to be reviewed, Stangler said.
But changing the SSF process is not an easy or short task, especially when the SSF committee is in the middle of it. Stangler said they are working on an “omnibus” resolution that outlines what changes need to be made, but the group is not limited to.
A committee will also be compiled over the summer of past SSF committee members, MSA members, students who have already gone through the process and anybody else who is interested to review and implement changes to SSF. Stangler hopes the recommendations will be able to be made next fall and changes made by the following year.
“Hopefully I will be able to look back and say ‘oh after I graduated this process was a lot better’,” Stangler said.
Stangler will most likely not be running unopposed.
Prahith Chakka and Henry Benson are running because they think they can do a better job than what is being done in MSA.
Chakka is a junior majoring in economics and political science. He was involved with MSA as a freshman, and as a sophomore he was chair of the student senate. This year much of his focus has gone to his fraternity Theta Chi, but he is also a College of Liberal Arts (CLA) senator and a member of the University Student Legal Services board of directors.
Chakka said he wants students to know where their money is going, and plans “to promote transparency and accountability in the administration.” If elected, he will promote community outreach in MSA to the Greek communities and cultural groups.
“I want to provide a big change in leadership and community outreach than has been done in the past,” Chakka said. “The old system of governance isn’t efficient and I know how to change it,” Chakka said.
Benson agrees that the old system isn’t working, but thinks he knows the best solution. He thinks the main problem with MSA is they only focus on long term issues, but these things “don’t affect students on a day-to-day basis.”
Benson and his running mate, Cameron Holl, will be focusing on short term goals if they are elected, such as improvements to bus routes, increased building access and a merging of gopher gold and flex dine, according to their website henryandcam.com.
“Longer term goals are still important, but aren’t the main thing,” Benson said.
Benson is majoring in marketing and international business. He is an at-large representative and grants committee director for MSA. In the past he has been a tour guide student outreach representative, LeadersShape participant and was involved with Students Supporting Israel among other things.
Holl is majoring in political science, history and philosophy. He is a CLA student senator and is involved in Beta Theta Pi, University Student Legal Services board of directors, was a Welcome Week leader and MSA freshman intern, among other things.
Benson said the main problem with MSA currently is they only focus on long term issues, but these things
“Joelle (Stangler) has had a chance, no, she’s had a year, and it is tough for students to say if they have seen MSA’s impact of advocacy on campus,” Holl said.
Reporter Allison Maass is studying Journalism at the University of Minnesota.