Vis Lupi Est Grex

Courtesy of the Nevada Sagebrush & Shane Steinbauer

Couldn't have said it better ourselves:

"Gracie and Lupus said it will enough I don’t have to defend the point any more. As to your platform: I think the editorial does an adequate job examining the flaws with regard to an all voluntary student senate. The frill the senate receives are also not necessarily all waste. Many things, such as name tags, t-shirts, polos, etc have been shown–empirically–to improve an organizations stature and retention within that organization (we are petty people, aren’t we?).

"Your view of speakers is naive (as is much of your platform). While speakers at senate meetings are not the be all end all of good government, they play a tremendously important role on introducing student representatives to the power brokers on campus, as well as exposing them to the ideas and policies of the administration. That would probably be knowledge needed to make any sort of informed decision with respect to campus policy.

"You also propose scrutinizing more closely clubs and the funds they receive. Two questions: what makes the student qualified to be arbiters on what is important (i.e. a worthwhile) expenditure of monies? Two, have you considered the legal ramifications of a government body making value judgments with respect to the distribution of monies (think 14th Amendment here; right Lupus?).

"I’m torn on the issue of homecoming. One of the best ways to improve academic performance, student retention, increased gradations rates, and campus spirit is to create ways for students to be involved. From my understanding, this year’s homecoming was one of the best in recent past.
One moving the responsibility of homecoming back under the Department of Programming: that was a change made just this last year on the recommendation of President Reilly. Reilly had spent three years working with programming, what justification, beyond technicalities, do you have for suggesting a reversal of policy? Have you considered the reasons for–or even reviewed the record on–the change?

"How is it that OrgSync is part of your platform? That was approved, and will be in place, before any of your candidates have been potty trained (with respect to ASUN that is).

"The plank on the incentive to save money, which has believe has been addressed previously somewhere (Vis Lupi or ASUNWatchDog), again reveals and ignorance and naïveté your group seems oblivious too. State law (Lupus?), and ethical government behavior, requires the government to strive to achieve a $0 balance by fiscal year’s end. While I don’t necessarily agree with this philosophy, people much smarter than you and I have been studying this problem for decades with little avail. What is your solution?

"You claim ASUN has additional advertising potential. Prove it. A rigorous proof is not necessary, just a logically sound argument.

"The ideas with regard to an evaluation mechanism already exists in law. More importantly however, is the fact that a budget and planning begins very shortly after senators are sworn in. The learning curve for ASUN is steep. It takes more than a few weeks to be in a position to judge the relative merits of any program, let alone the entirety of ASUN. What does START propose to help address this issue? Several solutions where considered when the constitution was rewritten during the 74th session but none were adopted for various reasons (I imagine Lupus would be willing to expound those ideas and the related concerns, if you’re interested).

"I’m unsure how moving ASUN “club” spending to the club account increases transparency. If anything it further obfuscates spending. The club account expenditures are not readily available and not in an easy to understand format, whereas current expenditures on ASUN are line-itemed in the official ASUN budget. This plank seems like pointless rhetoric informed only by ignorance.

"While you make some valid points with regards to WolfPack Radio, I’m unaware of any professional law staff on ASUN’s budget. ASUN has a retainer with a local lawyer to provide free legal advice to students who find themselves in trouble with the law and ASUN also has access to the University’s legal counsel, but they are not employed by, nor are the beholden to, ASUN in any official way.

"One final note. Your group seems to be a libertarian leaning organization, yet you propose pumping more money into campus escort. Do you know how many unique individuals use the service? The data isn’t collected, but my intuition is that Campus Escort is one of ASUN’s most expensive entitlements.

"What is nice to see is that the START group students actually care, and have taken time to think about the issues. But you guys do not know what you are talking about to the extent you seem to think you do. If any of your candidates get elected I expect they will find it much more difficult to accomplish START’s goals than you think. Many will fail because they lack a basis in reality (e.g., Homecoming, Club Funding, creating an incentive to save money, credit hour reimbursement). Others will fail because they aren’t real goals (OrgSync, ASUN wastes valuable time, moving Homecoming). And with others you have the seeds of goods ideas, but you level of knowledge is not sufficient to make them good, executable ideas (review of programs, an FM station)."

Posted by Wolfie at 3:20 PM