The Daily Wildcat makes its endorsements for the Associated Students of the University of Arizona elections. Polls open online at 8 a.m today and close at 8 p.m. on Wednesday.
President: Hannah Sager
The biggest issues facing UA students today are related to the ongoing cuts being made in the state Capitol. We were disappointed with the Associated Students of the University of Arizona’s disengagement from the process this year, especially when compared to the activities of the student governments at Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University.
Hannah Sager has charmed us with her plans to implement a proactive, rather than reactive, approach to budget cuts and other financial issues, including the rising costs of textbooks and student fees. Her opponent, Manuel Felix, aims to ensure that students are better informed about the ongoing political fights, but he seems less willing to step into the ring and less able to produce specific plans for making student voices heard at the state Legislature.
The other plans in Sager’s platform are similarly focused and detailed. Sager is one step ahead in both ideas and experience, and we’re endorsing her in the hope that she can move the UA a few steps ahead, too.
AVP: Tatum Hammond
Tatum Hammond articulates concrete, accessible goals on her website, such as instituting SafeZone training for all ASUA members and expanding Bear Down Camp. Her experience working as the Administrative Chief of Staff makes her stand out and makes us more confident that she understands her role and how to succeed in it.
Louie Mbarkeh’s goals seem much more unclear and difficult to implement. He mentions a desire to reach out, utilizing media such as the Daily Wildcat, but he has made no effort to do so in his past positions with ASUA and was unable to tell us at the senate debate what kind of partnership he envisioned with us.
Hammond seems to have a better idea of what is realistic in the role versus an idealized plan, and her ideas are more innovative than Mbarkeh’s goal of merely beefing up media and technology programs that are already in place on campus.
EVP: Abstain
Among the position’s other duties, the Executive Vice President is the Chief Club Advocate on campus and is responsible for working with the treasurer and Appropriations Board to get clubs their funding.
Here’s the thing: It’s the biggest bureaucratic mess on campus. Clubs report wait-times of a year or more, during which their phone calls, emails and in-person complaints go ignored. The process needs an EVP who is committed and able to streamline the process.
We believe that Richard Gallon, as an outsider running on a platform of increasing communication with and accountability to the campus’ 600+ clubs, has the commitment to fix the problem. But he might be getting in over his head in tackling a process with which he has little familiarity.
Evan Hastings, on the other hand, as the current director of the Appropriations Board, certainly has the ability to attack the problem. But his experience also makes him partially culpable for the chaos, and his platform of “adding step-by-step guides and more FAQs to the website” to help clubs get through the recognition and funding process, seems aimed at redirecting attention from ASUA’s incompetence onto the clubs themselves.
For this reason, we’re sitting this one out and refusing to endorse either candidate.
Senate: While 10 of the 16 candidates will ultimately be voted in, we chose to endorse our four favorites.
Joe Zanoni
Joe Zanoni is full of big ideas. He wants to reform the ASUA Senate itself, expanding its membership by creating seats for each of the university’s colleges and further developing the UA Listens petition system — and given the insularity of ASUA that this election has once again demonstrated, we’re fully on board.
He also wants to partner with TurboVote to create the first sensible plan that we’ve heard for improving student turnout in local and national elections, and his plan for improving campus dining for those with diet restrictions isn’t half bad, either.
All told, Zanoni has thoroughly impressed us.
David McGarey
David McGarey’s platform is the answer to a problem with which we’ve been faced throughout this election: How can students track the success of previous senators and ensure that good platforms are followed through on? Given senators’ short, one-semester terms, how can we keep their work alive after they move on?
We love his plan to create a public record of platforms and help the next round of senators see them through. It allows for continuity between senators and will make it easier to hold ASUA officials accountable.
Maybe we’re being unnecessarily idealistic, but we give McGarey credit for trying to bring about reform that represents the student voice.
Hailey Schwartz
Health and wellness on campus is crucial. With over 40,000 students walking around carrying all kinds of sicknesses, illnesses and germs with them, it’s only a matter of time until you catch something.
Hailey Schwartz wants to make flu shots more readily available and coat surfaces around campus with a spray-on anti-bacterial. Anything that saves us a visit to Urgent Care is much appreciated, and Schwartz’s plan gets a shot of approval.
Citlali Aguilar-Cañamar
Two words: nap center. The idea is appealing to any sleep-deprived, coffee-fueled, I-only-have-two-more-hours-to-finish-this-paper-and-need-some-shut-eye college student.
The Student Union Memorial Center used to have a television media room with couches to nap on, but students now settle for a grassy hill or armchair in the library to refuel. While Cañamar may need to revise the logistics and finite details of the plan, we are 100 percent behind the concept.
Besides, Cañamar also has other good platform ideas to fall back on, such as airport shuttle ride programs and refillable water stations. If the nap center doesn’t pull through, at least she’s thinking on her toes.
Editorials are determined by the Daily Wildcat Editorial board and written by its members. They are Nicole Thill, Torsten Ward and Jacquelyn Oesterblad.
