Anonymous assholes

Bloggers can be anonymous assholes, but do politicians have any right to use official resources to try to uncover their identities?

Interesting discussion here

Gracie Strikes Back

Gracie Geremia, the Senate's walking bag of excuses, has posted something of interest to me on the Sagebrush site this afternoon. I wanted to make a few notes on her latest rant.

First of all, I have generally held Ms. Geremia in relatively high esteem. As opposed to most members of the Senate, she has made an attempt to reach out to other people and has been receptive to the opinions of others. However, my stock of good will for her has been eroded by her erratic, wild-eyed posts on the SB and various blogs of late.

Lupus (Sean McDonald),

I wouldn't get too comfortable assuming that only one person uses that identity to criticize ASUN. That's just an aside on a hasty assumption.

I agree with Kyle entirely.

Entirely? Kyle's post amounted to: don't criticize us for trying, even if we fail. Sorry, but that attitude only gets you as far as 12th grade. You can feel personal satisfaction in trying, even if your goals are not achieved, but that doesn't make up for the people you let down, including those whom you represent. Mistakes and failures are absolutely a part of the learning and growth experience; however, the mistakes of the 76th Senate are legion. It is not hyperbole to say that both the number and scope of the errors have grossly outweighed any positive efforts.

Just because he was censured, doesn’t mean that he hasn’t done anything as a senator or learned from his experiences.

I am annoyed by this excuse, and not only because I've heard it countless times from this group. The Senate offers a learning experience, but you should not feel entitled to use student fees to 'enhance' your learning experience. You are entrusted with a large budget and important responsibilities, not a 1,500,000 educational toy. Serving as a senator is not a workshop. Please get that straight.

He sponsored the bar and grille resloution, has been vocal in the student union advisory board, and was the first to take initiative to meet with the dean regarding budget cuts.

1) BFD. 2) BFD. 3) Took initiative? You must jest. Your list of accomplishments are not any more impressive than my morning routine of showering, brushing my teeth, and dressing myself. Did Kyle diligently ensure the ASUN Senate was following its own laws? Did you?

Just because a senator isn’t spotlighted or receiving constant recognition, ir doesn’t mean that they’re on not valuable to the student body.

A vapid platitude. Moving on.

Some individuals, including yourself, did reach out to senate. I took the facts (your training on budget and finance) and threw your two-cent opinions out the window, because, like I said earlier, I respresent my constituents, not graduates with ASUN agendas that last their entire life.

It's always illuminating to watch an elected official take out her claws and scratch, scratch, scratch away on the public. This sentence is one more piece of evidence proving that you, Gracie, lack the maturity and poise to represent the Senate as its Speaker. This is just my "two-cent opinion", although maybe it's worth slightly more since ASUN continues to extract fees from me on a recurring basis.

Your upset, because (1) We decided to do a session-to-session training instead of hiring the “expert” (you). I, as well as a big chunk of the senate has lost respect for you. Remember the meeting where you graced us with your presence, only to try and manipulate the rules in order to get your desired outcome? I do.

"As the Speaker of the Senate, let me just say. . . " I think you're trying on the mantle a bit early, Senator, and I don't think your shoulders are wide enough to fit it.

I will agree with you that Senate, including myself (ecspecially myself), has made A LOT of mistakes this year. But, despite all the mistakes that we have made, there have been accomplishments, as well. Every senator has contributed in there own way and I can assure you that nobody had personal vendettas or malicious intent when rules and laws were broken and that’s far more than you can say.

There are things happening on two levels here. Let me break them out.

Level 1: By accepting responsibility for the Senate's numerous failures this year (as indicated by your use of what may very well be the word 'especially'), you either think you have more power and/or responsibilities than your peers, or else you want others to think that in the run-up to the Speaker's race. Gracie, in my mind you have only made two categories of errors this term. The first is that you failed to dutifully ensure the legal operation of the Senate, a duty which you share equally with your peers, and the second is your inability to exercise self control under duress. Both clearly disqualify you from being Speaker, but the first failure is also the most regrettable. Hopefully you will feel motivated to turn over a new leaf in the 77th session.

Level 2: Your intent when you break the law is irrelevant. Drunk drivers don't intend to kill people; lazy contractors don't mean to cripple people, and bad ASUN politicians don't intend to cause problems. Your intent does not spare you [or us!] from your mistakes, and you have been part of a body which has, in my opinion, broken many laws. I would almost prefer you have malicious intent, because that would mean that, in the very least, you were paying attention to what you were doing instead of wandering around with your head in the clouds. It would mean that you had some kind of intent beyond avoiding criticism and polishing your résumé.

I’ve learned sooo much this year and wouldn’t take a thing back.

You sound exactly like George W. Bush. He was a president unable to admit his mistakes. No matter how badly he screwed up, he "wouldn't take a thing back". You're saying that if you had it all to do over, you'd screw up the same way. This is certainly not encouraging to those who are hoping for a better Senate performance in the coming year.

I’ve learned from all my experiences, as the rest of the senate has, as well. I agree with you, Senator Anderson doesn’t deserve all this BS that is coming from the confusion.

You were in a special position to prevent that from happening. If you had bothered to prepare for the meeting by reviewing the rules for appointments, you would have been able to raise a point of order and remind the Speaker she was in a tie-breaking position. But you do not know the Senate's rules, it's laws, or the parliamentary procedures which are used to run its meetings. Yet another reason you are not qualified to be Speaker.

Lupus, when are you going to grow up and learn that student government is not life. When are you going to be able to accept people for who they are and realize that damn…we are humans and we do make mistakes. NOBODY means any harm.

Attack, then vapid platitudes. A pity; more a waste of your time to write than for us to read.

Wishing you happiness and success in life beyond ASUN,
Gracie

Insincere, vapid, petty, unable to take criticism, unable to take your job seriously, unable to fairly represent your constituency, unable to keep ASUN from becoming a laughingstock, unable to take honest stock of who you are and what you've accomplished. Yet, you'll be training folks this weekend on how to be a leader, just like you. Oh dear.

I know this is a strongly worded response, Gracie, but I am becoming frustrated with your pattern of being smart, responsive, and engaged when the going is easy and retreating to a position of passive-aggressive cattiness when you are criticized. The Senate needs a strong and steady leader to resolve the problems created by the 76th Session, and I don't believe that is you.

-Corinna

"Outstanding" Senator of the Year

Tonight the ASUN Senate chose one of its own to be the winner of the Outstanding Senator of the Year award. Each year, the Senate chooses one of its own who has demonstrated dedication to the institution, was true to the values of representative government, and has been an overall excellent senator, to be bestowed this great honor. To be the elite of the elite.

Or, for this year, to be the person who sucked the least.

Or, to be the only person who showed any objective measure of success, being that he got elected to higher office (which still means the person who sucked the least).

Senator Charlie Jose, who is also Vice President elect, was designated Senator of the Year tonight after several rounds of balloting. The final ballot was Jose 11, Geremia 5, and Richards 1. Four other senators were eliminated in prior rounds. Interestingly, prior to the final round of balloting, Jose sought to withdraw his name from consideration, but the Senate refused. Sergott, Ian McMenemy, and Purney were eliminated in prior rounds.

So, congratulations Senator Jose! You suck the least!

In other news, reading the ASUN Constitution is not a prerequisite for becoming a justice (link at 6:37; and here). It's not like the people who determine what the Constitution means should actually be vaguely familiar with it in advance or anything. So much for the Senate fully vetting candidates. Also, how do you take an oath to support a document that you haven't even read, much less understand sufficiently?

Certi-FAIL-ication

Today the Election Commission released on the ASUN website the unofficial results of the 2009 ASUN elections. It's interesting because it doesn't appear to be a certification of anything.

Compare to last year's document, this year's "certification" appears to be desperately lacking necessary elements. (Hint: It's supposed to be the same thing.)

The relevant language in the Election Code (section 18(a)(4)-(5) states:

(4) After the preliminary tabulation, the results of the elections shall be released by the Commission Chair and the Attorney General of the ASUN as soon as possible. The results shall be posted on the ground floor of the Joe Crowley Student Union as well as in other relevant places so that all persons shall have access to these results. They shall be clearly marked as preliminary and uncertified results.

(5) The election results for all elected officials positions, as certified by the Commission, shall become effective by their being read into the Minutes of a Senate meeting.

Given what was done last year under the same code, and the fact that the form of the certification was never challenged itself, there would appear to be no reason for current Commission Chair Sean Driscoll to change the form used. It was clear, contained all the essential elements required for a valid certification, and it declared the winners in clear language. This year, not so much.

As it stands, all that has been released is a spreadsheet showing votes. It is not a certification of results, unofficial or otherwise, effective or not.

Believe it or not, it looks like we may have found the one thing Nicole Nelson did right last year. (I've got $5 that says she isn't the one who drafted that document; she just signed it.)

Until the Commission releases a sufficient unofficial certification (results become official only once read into the record at a Senate meeting, by the Election Code's own terms), the Senate should refuse to have anything entered into its records. It's not like this is rocket science, people: just copy what was done last year, correcting the proper names, dates, and vote totals.

---

UPDATE: March 25 at 8 p.m.

Last night we learned that an official document will be coming forward from the Commission for next week's Senate meeting (link at 6:18). Perhaps it will be a certification in the proper form.

Reilly/Perez

Either the Reilly/Perez is taking a really early stab at 2010, or else they still have a campaign sign up on campus in the engineering quad. Now interestingly, this isn't against any sort of ASUN elections code. But it seems to be in poor taste to leave your garbage sitting on the lawn long after the main event finished.

So, Reilly/Perez, pretty please with sugar on top: get your signs off my lawn.

Another BoR meeting, constitutional amendment still pending

The Board of Regents April 2009 meeting will have one agenda item noticeably missing: the ASUN constitutional amendment from 2008 that is still pending. More than one year after it was ratified by the students, it still has not climbed the administrative ladder from student passage to Board of Regents approval. We have previously discussed this issue here and here.

In an effort to move this along a little more quickly, as the Senate might find great use in the contents of the amendment in the near future, below is a specimen certificate that Sean Driscoll can use to certify the amendment to UNR President Glick so that it might appear on the Regents' next agenda (June), more than one full year after it happened.

Specimen Certificate to UNR President on ASUN Constitutional Amendment, 2008

Publish at Scribd or explore others: asun

We should also note that this issue was raised directly to Sean Driscoll, the Chair of the Election Commission. In fact, we transmitted to him a copy of the specimen certificate above. It would appear that he has not acted on our (humbly) well-researched--dare we say accurate and competent--advice.

Could you guys maybe get on this? It is the Constitution and all, so it is kinda important. Sort of. Yeah.

Now that the elections are over

Although the 2009 ASUN election season is over, there is still one more race to cover: Speaker of the Senate.

The newly elected senators will elect a leader from among themselves at their first meeting, on April 15. In the coming days, we will look at the speaker race and give our views.

With that election complete, our focus on this blog will shift (well, not really since we haven't posted exclusively about elections) to the "other matters of importance" part in our tagline.

We look forward to providing insight and analysis like no other publication on campus does. We also hope the 77th Session of the Senate will be less deserving of our ire, but unless the current "Speaker," Priscilla Acosta, reaches out to provide competent training for the newbies, we fear it will be a rerun of a really bad year. (Just to be clear, the incumbent senators are not qualified in this respect.)

ASUN Informed, but not authorized

Senators Gracie Geremia, Charlie Jose, and Jennifer Richards have created a new blog to attempt to keep members of ASUN up-to-date about the happenings of the Senate. According to Ms. Geremia:

This will serve as an ASUN portal to inform interested students on the happenings of ASUN, in particularly Senate.

According to our research, there was never any act by the Senate to authorize such a publication. It seems curious to me the other nineteen Senators would feel comfortable to be represented in such a way without consent, and I wonder whether the issue will be brought before the Senate. You might imagine Speaker Acosta might try to exercise her powers to curtail this activity until an actual resolution authorizing the blog can be voted on by the Senate. Or else you might think the respective Senators would shut down 'asun-informed' and develop a blog which explicitly states the views of the authors as being personal and not representative of the body. If I were a Senator, I might prefer the authors of the blog be able to compose writings commensurate with a university education.

Two Elections, Two Failed Reilly Running Mates

Jeremiah Todd
Maritza Perez

Just two casualties of non-ticketed presidential races.


(This post marked our 50th.)

Statute of Limitations

As a friendly reminder to anybody who lost a bid for election (I'm thinking particularly of Daniel Clark, who lost his tie with Matthew Maggy by draw of cards) and wants to do something about it (we're Americans, we sue!), the Judicial Council's Rules of Procedure appear to require cases to be filed by Thursday, March 19, to be considered filed "in good faith."

Rule 3(e)(2)(A)(iv) of the Judicial Rules of Procedure states:

Rule 3 (e)...
...
(2) REVIEW OF CHARGE SHEETS.—
(A) After the filing of a charge sheet, the Council shall meet as soon as possible to determine if the case should be accepted. In order to accept a case, the Council must find that four conditions are met:
...
(iv) The case is filed in good faith. The following are non-restrictive guidelines for determining this condition:
(I) Election violation cases are considered filed in good faith if they are originally filed before 4 p.m. on the Tuesday following the close of polls.
(II) Appeals for election violation cases are considered filed in good faith if they are filed within seven days following the release of the original decision.
(III) Cases to invalidate an election are considered filed in good faith if they are filed within seven days after the election count.
...

The reason I point this out is I would be willing to wager that the Election Commission had a systemic error in its counting, just as it did last year. [LINK]

Daniel Clark and Matthew Maggy may have appeared to have tied last night, but a closer examination of the ballots may reveal that the race was not tied. Basically, it's a deficiency of using WebCampus to do voting rather than using solely paper ballots or springing for software actually designed for voting.

Happy suing!

A Non-S.T.A.R.T.-er

START Candidates: 9

START Senators-Elect: 0--As in nada, zippo, nothing, not one.

Total votes for START Candidates: 350

Average vote per START Candidate: 39

Seeing a bunch of morons lose: Priceless.

ASUN, Meet Your President-Elect

Is this our future, or are we already there?

ATTN: All Candidates

"Get this shit off of my lawn!" - Eli Reilly, March 13, 2008.

Rule of Law, Not of Men Children

This comment, made on a Sagebrush story from last year, bears prominent restatement:

ASUN operates, to the dismay of many, by laws.

At least that's how it was intended to work.

ASUN Budget--a little reminder

I was speaking with a classmate tonight about the ASUN elections. She is a senior and is moderately informed about ASUN. I asked her to guess at the budget.

--35K?

--50K?

--100K??!

--200K?

-300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900K ?!?!?!?!

A MILLION DOLLARS?!?!?!?!

More. About 1.3 million.

That is what is at stake. Go elect some responsible Senators.

Math Skills...

Proposed Constitutional Amendment:

Qualification to hold Senate office:

• The ability to divide one number by another.
  

VLEG: The ASUN Bash Site?

6:08	Sen. Patrick Kealy asked for truth behind a rumor that Anderson was running the "ASUN bash Web site" Vis Lupe Ex.

The "ASUN bash Web site", he says? Please, any idiot reading this knows that we like ASUN. Clearly, this is a "Bash incompetent ASUN Senators and Executives" site. As I said before when I wrote for the Pack Patriot--as much as I love having a reason to comment on the worthlessness of ASUN, I would love it even more to be deprived of the reason (i.e., having ASUN work for the students instead of the petty self-interests of a narrow minority).

I love the publicity, though. Thanks, Mr. K.

Mr. Justice Asshole

The ASUN Senate confirmed Taylor R. Anderson to be an associate justice of the Judicial Council tonight. ASUN members may remember that Taylor R. Anderson was the asshole who wrote the Election Code to benefit his own re-election campaign last year. In fact, one commenter to that Sagebrush article called Anderson "a self-absorbed anal tool." I prefer "asshole," but pretty much the same thing.

UPDATE
Or maybe not (link).

Director of Sucking Up

Looks like somebody wants to be reappointed.

UPDATE: Oh it gets better...

"Leadership" Conference

I have three questions:

1. Has anyone actually RSVP'd for this thing?
2. Is it just going to be Jason talking the whole time like at COLT?
3. Why should people pay an additional $5 for something they already pay for with their ASUN fee? Isn't one of the major philosophies behind ASUN, that everything is "free" for students to attend?

START lied about something? No way...

We have criticized START for its poorly informed positions, for their hypocrisy, but this one has to take the cake.

Apparently Matthew Maggy, candidate for Senate in the College of Liberal Arts, is NOT a member of START.


















It's one thing to make unfounded assertions in campaign platform planks, but it's quite another to misrepresent that a person is a member of your party when he is not.

If I'm Mr. Maggy, I would be mighty pissed, as this false association could do harm at the ballot box.

Banquet

If Russell goes to this banquet, I want a picture!

Save the Date!

He was asked by a Senator, who is on the banquet committee, if he wanted his name removed from the guest list and he never responded.  

Enough with the Facebook messages!

I think I speak for most people right now when I say "STOP SENDING MESSAGES ABOUT VOTING ON FACEBOOK!"

Seriously.  We get it.  Today is Election day.  And everyone should vote, but come on!

On another note, remember that you don't have to vote for candidates.  You can leave a ballot blank (VP, Prez, or Senate).  Don't feel like you have to vote because there is a blank box.  Also, just because you GET to vote for 8 people in COLA, or 3 in Business, etc... doesn't mean you have to vote for that number of people.  If you only like 3 people in COLA, just vote for those three, and only those three.

And when all else fails... write in:

By the way, if you are voting today DON'T VOTE for the following people (S.T.A.R.T):

CABNR

• Paul Sanford
  

Business

• Nathan Devlin
• Jane Glasgow
• John Russell

Engineering

• Barry Belmont
• Travis Hagen

Liberal Arts

• Mary Hunton
• Matthew Maggy 
  

Science

• Tomsen Reed
• Zachary Rees

UPDATE: Apparently Matthew Maggy is NOT a S.T.A.R.T Candidate.  The names for current S.T.A.R.T Candidates were taken from their official website.  But apparently they don't ask the candidates if they want to be part of the party.  So much for "honest" and "integrity."  

I call on John Russell to update his website so as to not confuse voters!

Slamming Eli in the Chalk

This morning I walked out of the South 2nd floor entrance of the business building and noticed a bunch of chalking next to the door.

The chalking was an attack against Eli for failing to deliver on his promise for a 24 hour campus. Amongst the chalking was a phrase, "Where am I supposed to study at 2 a.m.?" Perhaps in your room? Perhaps study earlier if you need to do so as a group? Clustering the attack phrases are colorful '24's, which makes me wonder whether Fox might not be the sponsor of these chalkings.

Whoever is responsible for the chalkings has very little acumen for attack advertising. See here:

1) They attacked on an issue nobody cares about. Okay, maybe there are five or six students disappointed there is no place to have group study at 3:00 a.m. Most of us don't care because we are sensibly asleep at that hour. Nobody is going to look at that broken promise and feel even a tinge of outrage.

If you are going to have an issue-oriented attack ad, it has to be something the voters are going to empathize with.

2) The ads mention Eli by name. Is there a better word than 'dumb' to describe a strategy that involves committing your own resources to publicize the name of your opponent? My thesaurus has a few suggestions, but I'll stick with 'dumb'. Get this straight: this election is a popularity contest. Most of the people voting probably couldn't name a single plank from either candidate's platform. What they will remember (subconsciously) is seeing Eli's name in pretty colors on the ground.

3) Effective negative advertising should name YOUR candidate and invite the viewer to make negative connections in his own mind. For example, the ads should have said: "Cabrera is the candidate who follows through on his promises" -- or something similar. That is a negative ad, but it puts your candidate's name out front in a positive way.

Full disclosure: Before the campaigns really started, I advised Michael on a few strategies to really get his name known. I took an informal poll and found that Eli had 4:1 name recognition advantage over Michael and tried to emphasize that his biggest task was getting people to simply know he existed.

Michael is the nice guy candidate of this race. Challengers facing incumbents must use the record of their opponents against them, but Michael was afraid of creating the appearance of a negative campaign. I'm afraid the conventional wisdom about the finishing spot of nice guys is too correct in this case.

On the eve of the election...

Some people might think Reilly has this all wrapped up.  For those of you who think that, think about this.  Last year Mr. Reilly received 706 votes, 11 more than Ms. Gilbert.  Mr. Cabrera got 718 votes and a much larger margin over Mr. Matute (Eli's current Chief of Staff / Campaign Manager).  

Considering only about 10 - 12% of the student population vote.  And those students are mostly those who are involved in some way, shape or form.  Either a club, fraternity, sorority, or ASUN.  If everyone who voted last year, who is still a student, voted the same way tomorrow and Thursday... this could be really close.  The only variable that's hard to account for is Freshmen.  

I encourage all the candidates to campaign their hearts out for the next two days.  Every vote counts; elections matter; elections have consequences.  

Good luck to everyone, and let the best student win!

Absent Voters Ignored, Disenfranchised

We handed this issue with a ribbon tied around it to an RSJ senator candidate (beacuse he knows a fellow student who is being disenfranchised), to presidential candidate Cabrera (for his accountability stance), and to the fine people of START (because they seemed most likely to demonstrate leadership and act on this issue). Nobody saw fit to act on it. For shame.

ASUN, trying to raise its Election Code violation score from last year, is about to disenfranchise a not-insignificant portion of the eligible voting population: absent voters. The ASUN Election Code mandates, at section 17(g), that the Election Commission "develop and promulgate such regulations as may be necessary to allow voters who are absent during the election to cast a ballot, so as not to disenfranchise the voter." No such regulations were promulgated.

Instead, Sean Driscoll, the Chair of the Commission, acting on behalf of the Commission, decided that in order for absent voters to vote, they must obtain an absentee ballot on campus before the election. That is not absentee voting but rather early voting. Driscoll's statement, which was transmitted to the undergraduate e-mail listserv, stated:

Ballots will be available on the 3rd floor of the Joe Crowley Student Union in the Accounting Office March 4th-6th during their office hours. Here is how you will cast an absentee ballot:

On the third floor of the Student Union in the Accounting Office there will be ballots for all the different colleges. You will have to present your Student ID card in order to vote.

So, what was so hard to understand about the provisions of the Code. Absentee ballots must be made an option for absent voters "so as not to disenfranchise the voter." Instead, by requiring absent voters to be present before the election, this population is entirely disenfranchised. Think of students studying abroad or on internships abroad. Many, if not all, are paying for credits at the University of Nevada, and thus are paying fees to ASUN, but are not allowed the right to vote.

This is simply disgraceful. Just add it to the list of ASUN laws suggestions that are being blatantly disregarded. Where the hell are the advisers, the administrative faculty, to make sure the kids on the playground are following the rules?

Lies, Damn Lies, and Campaign Promises: Michael Cabrera

In part two of our series examining the truthiness of high profile candidates, we examine Michael Cabrera. Although the Sagebrush has already issued its endorsement (and we our annotations) to the other candidate (Eli), we felt compelled to add our two cents so we wouldn't be accused of being blindly anti-Eli or some shit like that. (In case you couldn't tell, we're not exactly fans of either candidate.)

For a position whose constitutional duty is essentially to maintain a heartbeat to succeed to the presidency (oh, and do whatever the Senate or the President may assign), Michael promised much in his race for vice president last year.

Michael's platform (see also myspace page) for veep had many points:

• Campus safety
• Sticky campus
• Mathewson-IGT (-Pepsi) Knowledge Center
• Budget/Scholarships

As lofty as Eli's platform was last year, Michael's is worse if just for its lack of specificity.

Campus safety
It is unsurprising that both Eli and Michael had campus safety at the top of their platforms given the fear prevalent on campus last year.

Michael claimed credit for having more safety walks on campus last year. Too bad he did nothing to institutionalize them while he was a senator. Like Eli, he also committed to "finishing" the emergency call box program, which was already implemented by the time the election was over.

Verdict: Michael spoke in vague generalities and didn't present anything concrete on this topic.

Sticky campus
I'll just let Michael speak for himself:

Glick's idea of the Sticky Campus can be best realized in the coming year. With the opening of the Joe Crowley Student Union, Starbucks, Keva Juice, Port of Subs, and soon all of the other vendors, students want to spend more time on campus. Michael recognizes the need for bigger, better and more events on campus. If students want to be on campus, they should be accommodated!

Uh, yeah? How?

Matthewson-IGT Knowledge Center
Michael said he was committed to the Center, or something. "Michael is pleased to hear the new Knowledge center will be opening on time. As Vice President, Michael will meet with campus leaders to accommodate the student need during this important transition."

Michael will meet with university administrators "to accommodate the student need during this important transition." WTF does that even mean? And did he even do it?

Budget/Scholarships
Michael promised to submit a budget to the ASUN President once sworn in. Did he? And why would he, as it's not even his job under the Constitution.

Michael pointed out the problem of years past of paying for all officer compensation out of ASUN's capital fund (derived from the bookstore's profits) instead of the operating fund: it undervalued the true cost of doing ASUN's business. Unfortunately for Mike, the Senate passed a law prohibiting ASUN from paying for those costs out of the capital fund (ASUN Public Law 75-52, section 108(b)(4)). So a promise that was accomplished by the time he took office and one that he had little to do with.

Michael promised to create more ASUN-funded scholarships as vice president. Did he? No.

---

As unaccomplished and disinterested with ASUN law as Eli was last year, Michael was more disengaged than Eli. And that's saying something. In fact, it's hard to tell who did less: the Senate, or Michael.

Presidential campaign
The only thing more laugable than Michael's myriad promises that we're sure he's "still working on" is his platform this year.

Budget cuts
Michael promises to "fight the crippling cuts to the University with a fundamentally more realistic and responsible approach." Uh huh. How? By working as hard as you did as vice president? I feel so relieved already.

Improving quality of ASUN programs
Michael promsies to "make ASUN programs and services responsive to actual student need." Awesome! Details?

Bringing students forward on issues
Michael claims he will "promote the student voice: Set up outreach, opinion polling, and forums for students can reach local and state government." Nice vague point, but so is the rest of his campaign.

And, our personal favorite campaign point:

Accountability
Michael will "bring back accountability and integrity to ASUN: Empower individual Senators, the Senate, the Judicial Council and the legal process, make sure there is complete transparency in appointments and the actions ASUN takes, and end the “go it alone” policy which is too often employed by the office of the President."

This one platform positions is perhaps most striking because of the outright hypocrisy it reveals on Michael's part. He will restore legal process to ASUN. Great. So name one thing he has done, one tangible thing, that demonstrates his commitment to restoring integrity of processs? Because as far as we can tell, he is just whining about the problem without presenting actual solutions.

In fact, we raised an issue with absent voters being disenfranchised during this week's election (post to follow) and it fell on deaf ears. In fact, the reason Michael declined to do anything about it was he didn't want to look like he was whining. Well that's all you look like you're doing now.

We wrote that "Eli's campaign seems to be filled with half-truths, some baldfaced lies, and an unaccomplished record," but Michael takes the cake by far. And on his one platform message that resonates with other groups, such as START, Michael is just a part of the problem of unaccountability. You cannot have accountability unless you actually hold somebody accountable.

It seems Michael's candidacy was a quick afterthought, almost as if he saw nobody was running against Eli and figured the sacrificial lamb against an incumbent might as well as be him. Does he even want the job? Michael's Web presence is decidedly lacking. His campaign positions are about as limp as a wet noodle. It's basically a dismal failure. But I guess that's what should be expected given Madam Speaker Priscilla Acosta (aka bad Senate leader) is your campaign manager.

Michael is going to lose this election, probably in a landslide. The reason: Michael wasn't a candidate; he was a benchwarmer.

Sagebrush Endorsement: A Perspective

And now, Vis Lupi Est Grex presents a Sagebrush endorsement, annotated.

Reilly for ASUN president, Perez for VP

The turmoil faced by the student government reaches further than the third floor of the student union.The unrest, caused by overarching budget cuts, reaches into the wallet of every student and into future worth of University of Nevada degrees. By immediately addressing and still planning action against these cuts, student body President Eli Reilly earns the endorsement of The Nevada Sagebrush in his reelection campaign.

Holding a rally after the budget has been threatened for over a year is "addressing" the budget cuts? Let's be real, they endorsed him because they think he will win, plain and simple. Newspapers don't "predict the winner." They aren't dumb and can see who will win, and they pick who they think will be the winner.

Reilly freely admits he did not fulfill his campaign promises from last election cycle.

Tell us more oh Sagebrush oracles (Lies, Damn Lies, and Campaign Promises: Eli Reilly)

The campus is not 24 hours. Safe Ride has not returned. But the response to Gov. Jim Gibbons’ budget proposal makes up for it.

Yes, after over a year he finally came out against his fellow Sigma Nu brother, Jim Gibbons. It's amazing Eli is not a member of START (No New Fees!).

Reilly acted swiftly (we would redirect to the post done by Mr. Taytcher entitled "16 Months," but it's offline) and, with the help of others (others? Has he mentioned any others in his stump speech?), shifted his goals to meet the needs of students. Reilly took visible action – something the Associated Students of the University of Nevada is not renowned for.

He did better than the Senate in fighting the cuts. Congratulations, you did something, AND you have a pulse.

A current lynchpin platform, the SAFE (Student Aid For Emergencies) program, is idealistic and may be a forward-thinking boon if the shaky details are worked out.

It's amazing that a Republican as hardcore as Eli is proposing such a socialistic program. If you think about it, SAFE is welfare for students But Newsweek says we are all socialists now, so no biggie.

Reilly has not earned carte blanche authority, however. His push to make Casey Stitler the director of programming reeked of nepotism.

Really? Because the way I read the stories in your paper, it sounded more like the Senate was just being a bunch of bitches and wouldn't let his bro help him out. Funny how time gives us perspective.

He owns a share of the embarrassment of ASUN operating under 11 unsigned laws for 11 months.

"Embarrassment?" Is that what you call spending at least $100,000 without authorization and possibly having an entire budget unapproved? He's supposed to be the chief executive of ASUN--or is that Sandy's new title?

But the latter mistake partly highlights Reilly’s greatest strength--AH SNAP!--: He looks past the ASUN offices and focuses on the needs of the general student body. He can greet dozens of students by name. He emits a presence that the face of the undergraduate population needs, especially in these times. He has had a chance to network with dozens of state officials as that face.

So let me get this straight: he cares so much about students that spends their money without proper authorization, and he knows the needs soooo well that he doesn't need a Senate to tell him how to spend his money? Bravo. RIP ASUN Constitution. Amazing you lasted as long as you did (2007).

Reilly should be reelected.

Maritza Perez for vice president
The duties of the ASUN vice president are few: assist the president and head the diversity commission. Thanks to the vague definitions, the position has become inconsequential.

But not for one Latina Goddess.

The Nevada Sagebrush believes Perez can change this.In her time at the university, Perez was a driving force behind changing an unconstitutional sign policy in the dorms. She also started two clubs, one for the American Civil Liberties Union and another focusing on Latinos. She was appointed a senator and works as a club commissioner.

I just thought of something: Martiza has never been elected to an office. Never. The leadership positions in her clubs are the clubs she created. It's pretty hard not to be president of a club you create.

She plans to make diversity, which to her encompasses diverse thoughts as well as demographics, a yearlong goal instead of just a single week. Perez also wants to work closer with the Center for Cultural Diversity, an obvious idea that hadn’t been thought of previously.

Really? Because I'm pretty sure it says somewhere in the statutes that the Director of Diversity was supposed to liaison with the Center for Cultural Diversity. It's amazing how student politicians can just go back and actually read the law and then take credit for it as if it were a new idea.

She is convincing in her drive to make diversity a stronger focus. Her history of accomplishing her goals prompts faith in her doing what she says.

• Kappa Alpha Theta Vice President of Public Relations, (Got drunk and thrown out of the last Theta Dance. How's that for "Public Relations"?)
• ASUN former College of Liberal Arts Senator (Not elected but appointed over Lindsey Sanford, and didn't serve a full term. And, not hard to beat a person who got zero votes.)
• Multi-Cultural and Diversity Club Commissioner
  
• Young Democrats recruitment chair (When's the last time someone saw Maritza at a Young Dems meeting?)
• The Nevada Blue writer (One story last year about her Obama sign in her dorm)
• Students for Obama vice president
• David Bobzien re-election campaign hospitality chair (Knocked on doors...once?)
• ACLU Student Chapter president (Created the club after the Obama sign incident)
• College of Liberal Arts Student Advisory Board (When was the last time she went to a meeting?)
• Committee on the Status of Women (When was the last time she went to a meeting?)
• Latino Research Center Student Advisory Board president
• Honors Program (Look at me, I'm smart!)
• Delta Epsilon Iota Academic Honor Society (Isn't that the one where you don't have to do anything, just have a professor nominate you?)

(Taken from Facebook)

Perez should be elected ASUN vice president.

---

We don't mean to be "one sided" or "small and petty," but the Sagebrush didn't endorse Michael and Charlie. How are we supposed to criticize an endorsement that didn't happen?

Courage Under Fire

John Russell of START demonstrated courage to respond to our opinions and criticisms about his apparent hypocrisy in accepting a paycheck from ASUN while simultaneously decrying the compensation of ASUN officers. Rather than fold his tent and go home, or whine about our being unfair or mean or some such, he responded maturely. He demonstrated leadership and integrity. We commend him for responding, and accept his explanation on this point. Although we believe you will see the error in your reasoning on officer compensation, bravo for remaining steadfast amid a mountain of criticism.

--VLEG

When is this election again?

Yeah, I'm voting next week!

Lies, Damn Lies, and Campaign Promises: Eli Reilly

Politicians have been making lavish campaign promises to lure voters since the beginning of time. Student politicians are no different. In this series of posts, we will examine the platforms of the high profile candidates and how they compare to their past promises.

Since Eli is the incumbent in the presidential race, it seems fair to focus on him first. Also, he seems most likely to win at this juncture.

Eli promised many things last year. Let's examine his platform from last year and see if he made good on any of them. (I have no idea how long this blog will stay active once he realizes it is still out on the Internets.)

Eli's platform last year had three main points:

1. Campus safety
2. "The College Experience"
3. 24-hour campus

Campus safety
Last year's campaign was being waged in the middle of the Brianna Denison slaying. The attitude on campus was one of fear. Eli argued that "ASUN can undertake that would help make our campus a safer environment."

Specifically, Eli proposed to "complete and fulfill the Campus Blue Light Project" and "expand Campus Escort to reduce wait times."

Blue Light Project (Emergency Call Boxes)
On the Blue Light Project, ASUN's involvement was practically zero, especially from a budgetary sense. The 75th Session passed a resolution on the project at the beginning of its session, but nothing else became of the project within ASUN. The Senate had considered giving money to the project, but backed away (Sagebrush).

The University ended up implementing the project in May of 2008 (Sagebrush) ("A
A Push of Button Brings Emergency Help").

Eli's involvement in getting the project established? Apparently none. He stated during the campaign that if elected "I will make a commitment from ASUN that will assist in funding this project." Unfortunately, Eli was unable to keep this promise. As it turns out, University President Glick already had a plan for implementation. "This is something we've been working on for a long time," said Adam Garcia, University Police Chief. "President Glick was instrumental in obtaining funding for this. He stepped forward and did the right thing."

The project was implemented at about the time Eli was first elected to the presidency. In other words, this project was already happening before Eli was even elected.

Verdict: Eli had no impact on the project.

Campus Escort
Eli argued that wait times for Campus Escort were unacceptable. His solution was to increase funding to the service. Funding for Campus Escort, by the end of fiscal year 2008 (2007-2008 school year) was $25,000. In this fiscal year, during Eli's term as president, $50,000 was appropriated to Campus Escort. (Excluded is capital spending on the program.)

It is unclear whether this additional money contributed to decreased wait times, since those figures do not appear to be readily available. So, spend more money without measuring performance on an objective scale.

One thing to keep in mind was that ASUN was receiving more money in this fiscal year than last, so increases in funding are not necessarily because of a shift in priorites to spend more money on Campus Escort.

Verdict: Unclear. The evidence is insufficient to establish that Eli followed through on his campaign promise to decrease wait times, but he did get more money to the Program. The question would be whether that money actually was used for the Program, or just used to line the pockets of one of Sandy's administrative minions.

"The College Experience"
Eli pointed out as a problem "apathy is very prevalent on our campus." His solution was to increase funding to the Programming, Homecoming, and Clubs Departments in ASUN. He pledged that he would raise the Flipside (Programming) budget to $175,000.

According to the most recent revision of the ASUN budget (the legal enactment of which is seriously in doubt), Programming was appropriated almost $122,000, with spending authority for another $15,000 if they raised the revenue.

That's a $38,000 difference.

Verdict: We cannot objectively state whether the apathetic attitude on campus has dramatically changed, but Eli clearly did not meet his campaign promise of $175,000 to programming.

24-Hour Campus

In his campaign, Eli noted that there was no place for students to go on campus after midnight on a weeknight. His solution was "to work with University administration to secure" either or both a 24-hour student union and a 24-hour library. He also proposed extending Lombardi Rec's hours to 2 a.m. (ideally 24-hours).

Knowledge Center Hours

Note the part where the latest they are open is midnight.

Joe Crowley Student Union Hours

Note the part where the latest they are open is 2 a.m. on three days a week.

Lombardi Rec Center Hours

Note the part where the latest they are open is 11 p.m.

Verdict: F-. Eli did not create a 24-hour campus. It was foolish of him to suggest that he could.

This year
Eli, being an incumbent and all, is promoting his past accomplishments as proof of his deserving another term as president.

Among his more interesting "accomplishments":

• Negotiated expanded hours for Lombardi Recreation Center beginning Fall 2009
• Provided more funding for clubs and organizations than ever before
• Currently co-chairing a committee to find a way to replace the Math and Writing Center services
• Organized student rally in Carson City in late January
• Negotiated the @One floor of the Knowledge Center being open 24 hours; the program was put on hold because of the increased severity of the budget crisis earlier this semester
• Established the SOAR program to provide free student tutoring

Lombardi expanded hours
Okay, maybe were a little harsh on his 24-hour campus promise from last year, but we'll see if expanded hours actually come to fruition given the budget cuts.

More club funding
Not hard to do, considering ASUN's revenues went up about $300,000 from last year.

C0-chairing a committee
Ooooooh, he's co-chairing a committee. Big whoop.

Organized rally
This one is perhaps my favorite. Eli takes credit for organizing a rally in Carson City on the budget cuts. As it turns out, he just showed up to speak. But he organized that shit!

24-hour @One
He claims to have negotiated an open-24-hours first floor of the Knowledge Center, and then admits defeat in the very next sentence.

Established SOAR tutoring program
Illegally. Enough said.


In all, Eli's campaign seems to be filled with half-truths, some baldfaced lies, and an unaccomplished record.

Something's Not Jiving Here

Exhibit A:

Jessica Purney wrote
at 8:31pm on February 6th, 2009
I was just curious...as a club commissioner do you give away your stipend for private scholarships? Because you do in fact make more than a senator does.

John Russell wrote
at 8:33pm on February 6th, 2009
Actually, I haven't even gotten my employment paperwork in yet. When I signed up as a commissioner, I had no idea it was a stipend deal until well within the first semester.

Exhibit B:

Anonymous said...
Since payment of public officers is public record I inquired with the ASUN offices to see if Mr.Russell had received his paycheck or adhered to his platform of altruism. Mr Russell received his check on 12/31/2008, after the START political party had already begun... can anyone say...hypocrite?

Exhibit C: [INSERT IMAGE OF CHECK WITH SMALL-MAN RUSSELL'S ENDORSEMENT HERE] (Okay, we can't actually get the image of the check, but we know he cashed it.)

Game. Set. Match.

Where's Waldo?

Has anyone seen or heard from the Attorney General this election?  Besides her little appearance at the candidate meeting where she basically wrote her own law.  

It would be really interesting to know if the candidates are within their spending limits, or if any other provisions of the Election Code have been broken.  I seriously doubt that everything has been followed exactly.  

Too bad administrators can't vote...

Nevada News - ASUN elections offer opportunities for change

It seems the administration has picked their horse in this race.  I think it's pretty obvious that they gain more by keeping the status quo.  The longer students are in power, generally the easier they are to manipulate.  After a year of working with Mr. Reilly on many issues, it's no question that they'd rather have someone they've come to know, and know how to manipulate.  

It's one thing to do a story about the election...but really putting a huge picture of Reilly/Perez is the most unsubtle endorsement I've ever seen.  If they wanted to be fair they should have picked a picture of the lawn in front of the Joe, or by the Business Building, where there are tons of signs... 

So much for "opportunities for change"...

P.S. - "Jeff Champagne, ASUN president from 1995-1997, was the first."  Champagne was from 2005 - 2007...idiots...

UPDATE: They corrected it, 2005-2007. 

START comment

It strikes me as funny that a group committed so strongly to the cause of self-disenfranchisement is endeavoring to elect nearly a dozen of its company to office.

Begging the Question

Quoting from Barry Belmont's response in the letter previously posted regarding an all volunteer senate and the implications of such a government:

"Many brought up the exact same points (only the rich can run...) and I can see and understand this position. However, as you mentioned a good senator should work say at least 10 hours a week. Well for the 16 weeks of the semester (let's call it 15 for the sake of argument) that totals 150 hours worked for $400. Or roughly a wage of $2.70 an hour. It can be said that our senators are working for peanuts already and with this budget crisis it seems more pressing than ever to save ever last penny."

Today we learn about the wonderful logical construct of petitio principii or begging the question. This logical fallacy is one in which a logically unsound premise is used to suggest a proof.

Mr. Belmont and START claim the low pay senators already receive should be proof enough that the senators shouldn't require any pay. However, this argument ignores the possibility of the existence of those who would run but cannot afford to run at the current pay and therefore do not run. What if the low pay already excludes a significant number of potential candidates?

Arguably, reducing the pay even more could further reduce the size of the pool of possible candidates, making ASUN a less democratic body (i.e., more elite).

A Letter to Barry Belmont of START and His Response

Barry,

I think what you guys are trying to do is great. And I also think that your ideas are very good at a very basic level. I was glib and condescending in my response on the Sagebrush website, for that let me apologize. This is an absurdly long email, but I hope it helps convey my sincere hopes and concerns for your success.

I would love for you guys to succeed on a number of issues including getting rid of waste in ASUN, improving club funding models, making programming more cost effective and responsive to students, and many other things.

What I had hoped to convey through my post was that your platform appears to lack actionable ideas.

Even though you didn’t ask, I’m going to provide a critical analysis of your planks that interest me and make suggestion on how to improve both the message surrounding the plank and how to make the plank a idea that can be implemented.

All Voluntary Student Senate

This plank focuses on the senate only. There are 21 senators, each getting paid $401/semester. That is $8,421 per semester out of student fees this year of $1.3 million, or 1.3% of the student fees paid into the budget. All expenditures on the senate total $38,662 or 3% of the budget. The budget of the executive board is 7.2%, yet it is never mentioned in your platform. Why? The senate controls all monies spent in ASUN, including wages paid to executive officers of the Associated Students.

Your platform also says, “Unless a good deed is done voluntarily, it has no moral significance.” A consequence of this stance that START has been asked to address several times is what about students who cannot afford to work for ASUN? Only those who are rich enough to be able to afford to volunteer (for a good senator) 10-15 hours per week minimum therefore lack virtue? This corollary actually suggests perhaps senators should be paid even more, so all students who feel a desire to serve students can, regardless of particular economic situations. I would appreciate a response.

Your own figures indicate 43% of the budget of the Association is consumed by Professional Salaries. My calculation actually came out to 48% for this year, if all positions had been filled. Regent policy requires only that ASUN has a business manager. While I personally believe ASUN has grown beyond just a business manager, I do not think it should cost $625,000 per year to run ASUN before any students are even paid. While it is laudable you are aware of the Constitution provision forbidding disapproval of contracts and salaries, that does not preclude anyone, including the Senate, from working with Sandy, Student Services, or the Board of Regents on this issue. Why is it START is unwilling to address this issue? Do you not view it as wasteful? Do you view it as a necessity of running ASUN?

Another part of this issue is credit hour reimbursement. Do you believe, especially during a crisis, the University will give ASUN over $16,000? ASUN would have to pay for the waivers. The political reality is ASUN will have had its per credit fee grow by nearly 100% next year, when compared to four years ago. The University is unlikely to be receptive to ASUN seeking a $16,000 handout. Further, even if credit waivers were secured, by whatever means, it would have a detrimental effect on a student’s ability to receive financial aid. Are you aware of this consequence? If so, are you indifferent? If so, I refer you to my prior points on the equity of voluntary service.

One are I think it would be both prudent and fair to look at cutting costs would be the retreats and the banquets, but the retreats serve as valuable team building exercises, while the banquet is a way to congratulate and thank students for serving. Is it necessary, no. Does it serve a purpose, yes. You call it wasteful spending without addressing other issues related to the spending. Do you feel retreats and banquets serve no purpose? Or do you feel the same thing could be accomplished for free or at least substantially less money?

Improving Programs

You claim “[c]lubs are awarded money without scrutiny.” I agree. There are Constitutional reasons, however, that there are not discriminating rules. The government has not right to act as an arbiter with regards to this. And even if it tried, do you not see a situation arising where clubs are funded in an even more irresponsible way; clubs with friends in powerful position getting more money for instance. It is very easy also, to create standards but what right do you feel the government (remember the ASUN is a government no different that the US except in scope, scale and importance) has to decide, probably somewhat arbitrarily, who gets money?

Spending Student Money

Your claim that “[t]here is not an incentive to save money” is again correct. This is a perennial problem with government. There is some fascinating research on the subject, but I am honestly curious: how do you propose addressing it?

The idea of creating a merit based system is a good one. However, it already exists in law. The biggest problem with this is that ASUN lacks the infrastructure to generate the kind of reports that would make evaluating services possible. It could be created, but it would cost money and take time. Further, there seems to be a lack of interest on the part of the Director of ASUN to make it easier to review programs (especially a pet program like Campus Escort). By law, and I’m unsure of the citation—I’ll find it and let you know—programs must go through a review process to get continued funding. I believe the process operates over a period of two or three years.

What I would like to see in your platform are more details on how to create a review process given senators will have been office for about a month by the time the budget is created. Once the budget is created, programming starts pursuing contracts for events, money starts getting spent. Although the budget can always be amended, by the time the senate as the requisite knowledge to make an informed decision, it may be too late to make a change? What process or method does START propose to address this concern?

Then there is what I would refer to as empty rhetoric: OrgSync, additional advertising potential (review my comments on the Sagebrush website), moving Homecoming under the Department of programming, ASUN speakers, the ASUN wastes valuable time, and stop raising fees (my biggest question on this is: How?). I am also curious as to what rule set or method START envisions replacing Robert’s Rules?

I hope you take me sincerely when I say I think what you guys are trying to do is good, but there is a lot of stuff you don’t know that is going to stop you in your tracks when you try to get stuff done. I’ve been watching and participating in ASUN for four years; I’ve seen a lot of people with good ideas not get anywhere because they were unaware of the resistance they will encounter from with the ASUN establishment and the because they lacked a deep understanding of campus politics.

Shane Steinbauer

And the response

Hello Shane.

First of all, thank you for this response. It is very insightful. I apologize, but I fear my response might be as long as your concerns. Please bear with me.

All Voluntary Student Senate

This pillar of our platform was decided after numerous heated exchanges between the members. Many brought up the exact same points (only the rich can run...) and I can see and understand this position. However, as you mentioned a good senator should work say at least 10 hours a week. Well for the 16 weeks of the semester (let's call it 15 for the sake of argument) that totals 150 hours worked for $400. Or roughly a wage of $2.70 an hour. It can be said that our senators are working for peanuts already and with this budget crisis it seems more pressing than ever to save ever last penny. What better way to show that we (senators) stand with the students than in refusing our pay to help them just that little bit more. I agree, the amount is minuscule, but it is such a simple and powerful gesture towards those we serve that the START members agreed that refusing the pay or using it as a means to give money back to students was the best idea. Obviously it might be hard to achieve and we certainly couldn't (wouldn't) force other senators to refuse their pay, but the option for senators to refuse their pay should be on the table.

Or...and this was also part of the debate...we should pay the senators what a normal job would pay...that way it would be more of a real job and not just some hobby for some people. But from looking at the attendance records, legislation passed, and overall performance of previous senates, it does not appear that the senators even deserve to be paid that much. I'm sorry to be blunt, but in all honesty it doesn't appear that most of them have earned what a minimum wage job would pay. We in START didn't think that throwing more money at senate would solve this problem (it hasn't solved many other of their problems) so we once again leaned on the side of volunteerism.

Also, as you have seen, there is a conspicuous lack of mentioning professional salaries and the executive board. During winter break when we were going over all the budget numbers we saw that these two take up considerably more money and if anything should get docked it should be these. We were fully prepared to come out and say cutting pay to these people or passing resolutions saying we don't want to pay so-and-so anymore because they haven't lived up to their job title...basically everything you've mentioned. Before we solidified our position we talked to numerous senators, ASUN staff, Eli Reilly, and even Sandy herself...many meetings about many things to see what could possibly be done. In so many words we were told that it is practically impossible (as a senator) to cut the pay to anyone but the senate (possibly judicial...). Sandy said she didn't feel entirely comfortable about the idea of the senate evaluating professional salaries and that that was her job to do. Honest to goodness, we tried to see what could be done, but answers were hard in coming and when they came, they were generally "no, you cannot do that." So rather than make promises that we weren't entirely sure we could keep, we decided to stick with senators' salaries for now...and if the opportunity presented itself at a later time, reopen the idea of professional and executive board salaries. Certainly, no one can think that we would be unable to say that we wouldn't go that far...I mean we're cutting our own pay, what makes people think we wouldn't be afraid to cut theirs? In conclusion, there is no mention of it for the simple reason that when we were asking about this we were utterly stonewalled.

Credit Hours

This seems to be our most misunderstood stance...I think I may rework the wording on the website. We are not talking about monetary reimbursemtn in the amount equal to credit hours. For instance, three credit hours = $400 or something. No. What we had in mind is that on our transcripts a simple three simple elective credits (that don't affect the GPA...basically pass/fail) would be added for each semester worked. That way senators are reimbursed for their time with three extra credits..but not with money. It wouldn't cost anybody a thing...I mean besides someone going into our accounts and transferring three credits. This position was met by a compromise between the members (many disagreed with it), but we figured it was a form of reimbursement and could possibly pave the way to "failing" a bad senator. Right now senators get their $400 a semester regardless of how good they are. If, in the future, someone could possibly "fail" being a senator, we believed this would provide a strong incentive to do good.

Retreats

Many memebers, having attended banquets and retreats felt that they don't serve the purpose they were designed to do: namely, leadership building, frienship building, commradery, etc. This isn't based on studies of what other groups do when they go on retreats or what the effect of these are "supposed" to be, but rather on the personal opinions of the members who have attended them. That being the case, we also felt more prudence would be exhibited if the ASUN was granted money the same way other clubs were, by asking for club funding. If the ASUN thinks these banquets serve a purpose, let them convince the club commissioners the same way all other people asking for money do.

Improving programs

We understand that the senate has little power to affect club funding. This is good. We do not believe the senate should be deciding to get into the club funding business. You are absolutely right, the government has no right to arbitrarily assign value labels to certain things or to help their buddies out. We do not want this. Our stance in improving programs is meant to highlight its importance (so that others may make note of it on this campaign and for the year to come) and also the prod the club commissioners into fixing the muck they set for themselves.


If you do not mind, I will finish the rest of my response tomorrow, but right now I've got to finish up some homework. Thank you once again for being level-headed about this and responding in a reasonable manner. All too often I have been met with people slamming hands down and yelling "you know nothing!" ...It's depressing hearing all the bad things said about you for no other reason but that you're running. C'est la vie. So I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to respond to me, I'll finish this up as soon as I can tomorrow.

-Barry