The following is the first part of a three-part series exploring this year’s Student Union Executive Board slates.
‘Truant’ slate members plan to provide an ‘open forum’ website for the student voice, establish a rape crisis center, create a better communication network between the student body and the Student Union and lessen the large amount of student government cooperation with administrators, they said last night in an interview with The Daily Free Press.
Ethan Goldwater, the ‘Truant’ presidential candidate, said he wants to make the Student Union less political than it has been in previous years. Goldwater said he would like to increase the involvement of the students themselves in the workings of the Student Union.
‘I’d like to open it up to the student body – make sure things happen, be around, get out and talk to people,’ he said. ‘I feel like [Ethan Clay] sets himself apart as some kind of politician. I mean, I would be president but it wouldn’t mean anything more than any of these guys.’
‘Truant’ slate members said they are different from the race’s other slates because they are average students compared to other candidates. All members of the ‘Truant’ slate currently work for The Student Underground, giving them a different vantage point, according to vice president of Multicultural Affairs candidate Sheera Frenkel.
‘We are coming from where the students are coming from,’ Frenkel said. ‘[The Student Underground] is more of a collective than anything else there is no ‘we’re better than you’ or ‘we’re higher than you.”
Christine Hochkeppel, ‘Truant’ vice president of Residence Life candidate, said her slate wanted to change the way the student body viewed the role of the Student Union.
‘The biggest problem with ‘True’ is that they have made themselves more a part of the administration than of the student body,’ she said. ‘We would have it the other way around.’
Slate members gave what they believed to be different reasons for running for election compared to other slates.
‘None of us have a résumé,’ said Brian Dolan, vice president of Academic Affairs candidate. ‘Résumé is a French word and we will have nothing to do with that.’
While ‘Truant’ said they believe necessary reforms need to be made to the Student Union, the process will be public knowledge. Dolan said ‘no secret meetings’ would be held, a statement adamantly supported by the rest of his slate.
After witnessing two deadline extensions resulting in an unopposed ‘True 2’ slate, ‘Truant’ slate members said they decided three hours before the final deadline to declare their candidacy.
‘I didn’t even know about it – the advertising was so poor,’ said vice president of Public Affairs candidate Daniel A. De Bonis. ‘It was really my idea, we can’t let this happen, we can’t let the ‘True’ incumbency go unopposed, it’s our duty.’
The last-minute decision caused problems in determining the slate’s presidential candidate, they said. The slate’s first choice ‘took a nap’ and overslept the deadline, Goldwater said.
Despite forming a slate at the last minute, the ‘Truant’ slate has formed opinions on the other slates running.
Goldwater said ‘Truant’ had been applauded for their ‘radical’ viewpoints by ‘URANUS.’
‘They said we said the things they wanted to say but thought were too radical,’ he said. ‘I think what they are doing is really funny. It’s real great.’
Slate members admitted they had confusion to what their roles would entail if elected.
‘We are trying to give people other options, we aren’t politicians and we don’t know what the hell is going on,’ Goldwater said.
The ‘Truant’ slate is one of three slates running for the Union Executive Board against True 2′ and ‘URANUS.’ Elections will be held Apr. 1-3.
