Andrew Steinberg — SKYY Party

Three SGA veterans are squaring off for a weeklong campaigning blitz of sidewalk chalk, fliers and handouts that begins today, culminating with undergraduate elections next Tuesday and Wednesday.

All candidates in this year’s election have at least one year under their belts in the organization, which hasn’t happened since 2002. Student Government Association President Steve Glickman is gunning for re-election as the head of “Your Party” against Vice President of Finance Andrew Steinberg, who is leading the “SKYY Party,” and North Hill legislator Natalia Cuadra-Saez, who is running on the “STARE Party” ticket.

The three presidential hopefuls said they’re running for the top spot in the SGA to enact changes that will benefit students. Cuadra-Saez and Steinberg point to the shortcomings of this year’s SGA administration as incentive for their candidacies. But Glickman, who is the first SGA president to run for re-election in more than a decade, is running on a platform that mostly expands on ideas he said have been successful during his term, such as dining point donation drives and improving the SGA’s relationship with student groups.

But, he noted, he’s tackling new issues alongside old ones.

“One of the reasons its called ‘Your Party’ is … before we decided to run, we went out and asked students what they wanted to see improved in our school,” he said. “We do have a lot of new ideas.”

Those ideas range from small-scale — such as expanding the Collegiate Readership Program and instituting a commencement gown rental program — to university-wide projects, such as ensuring students are included in administrative processes under a new university president.

“One of the big overlying themes … is stable student leadership in a changing campus,” he said.

On the other hand, Steinberg’s platform focuses on replacing what he calls ineffective leaders: those who he said use their title as a resume-booster rather than to create tangible results for undergraduates.

“The problems with SGA in terms of being an effective organization, an effective representative body, an effective lobbying body … aren’t systemic based on how the organization is structured, but rather the individuals in it,” he said. “With the right leadership in place, changes can be made.”

Steinberg also said lobbying will be a key issue of his campaign — an area in which he said the SGA has fallen flat this year.

“You can’t just show up one day,” he said, referring to the SGA’s annual Terrapin Pride Day in early March when 68 students showed up to lobby state legislators. “Priorities in Annapolis were not appropriately addressed, nor were they adequately addressed. … You need to be there, and you need to be establishing relationships with people.”

Cuadra-Saez said the SGA doesn’t facilitate the kind of dedication crucial to making change happen at an administrative level. Cuadra-Saez’s STARE Party, which stands for Students Taking Action to Reclaim our Education, takes cues largely from its namesake student group in terms of platform priorities.

“Everything that STARE stood for is important for our party,” she said, listing diversity, holding administrators accountable and student empowerment as top issues.

She recalled student outrage over the dismissal of Associate Provost for Equity and Diversity Cordell Black, after which 600 students rallied in front of the administration building to demand the administrator’s reinstatement.

“You could feel the energy, the passion, the determination to do something about it,” she said. “SGA doesn’t foster any of that — it’s very bureaucratic. … It’s not an approachable organization.”

Cuadra-Saez said the centerpieces of her campaign will be achieving tangible change — such as creating a student housing co-op — and making the SGA more available to students.

“If you go to [an SGA] meeting, you’re likely to feel very bored and very alienated,” she said. “It’s set up in a way that you have to be part of the SGA for a while to understand it and get anything done in it. … It belongs to students, not the other way around.”

aisaacs@umdbk.com