My name is Andrew Steinberg, and I am running for SGA president with the SKYY Party because student leadership at our university needs to change.
The administration pushes us around because we are divided. That means making personnel decisions without us, raising our student fees or developing on green space without ever consulting students. When a group like the Student Government Association won’t give them the “OK,” they go somewhere else to sell their message. Every college has its own advisory committee. Students are in groups — Panhellenic Association, Residence Hall Association, Interfraternity Council, etc. — that don’t communicate with the others and hear different stories from different administrators. Everyone who is involved in these groups brings a unique variety of experiences to the table, but right now there is nobody to play host.
The SGA needs to bring student leaders together to get results for the student body. That is why the SKYY Party will create the Student Campus Policy Committee, which will bring student group leaders together regularly to have an open discussion of university policy.
Group leaders will be invited to contribute as equals with the SGA to best understand and influence the administration’s decisions. Together, this group can steer university policy in our interest because administrators will have nowhere else to turn.
Ideas like the SCPC are the type of fresh thinking that student leadership needs, which the SKYY Party provides. Right now, all student “leaders” do to represent you is pass resolutions that sometimes aren’t relayed anywhere, protest uselessly or promote themselves in The Diamondback. After this year of unfulfilled empty promises, people have started to question if the SGA can even put up a fight.
The SKYY Party believes it can — under the right leadership. This year’s leadership has been ineffective and irresponsible, and they don’t deserve a second shot. They’ve cost you millions of dollars in student fees, allowed your tuition to go up without a fight and spent the year pursuing an overpriced program to change your student ID into a Metro card, which never happened.
The SKYY Party has fresh ideas. It is the SKYY Party who wants to audit the Department of Transportation Services, who can take practical steps to make the campus safer and end police brutality, who has original initiatives in our state legislature (including getting you more financial aid), who wants to allow local restaurants to take Terrapin Express and who can change how you see SGA. With the right leadership, the SKYY is the limit! It’s up to you to vote for change. Check out the SKYY platform at www.skyyparty.com.
As vice president of finance for the SGA, I oversaw $1.2 million of your money in one of the most transparent and accommodating processes. I also demanded accountability on how your money was spent and fought for a reduction in your fees.
While the rest of the SGA was wasting time on frivolous witch-hunts or pushing a resolution for “Meatless Mondays,” the SKYY Party was meeting with state officials and administrators about important issues to you, such as auditing DOTS. The SKYY Party has the experience to get things done.
The choice in this election is simple: change or more of the same? I can tell you that student leadership needs to change in every way under the SKYY.
Andrew Steinberg is running for SGA President with the SKYY Party and is currently the SGA Vice President of Finance. He can be reached at andrew.steinberg at gmail dot com.
