After an academic year filled with Student Union infighting that ultimately led to Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore’s reorganization of BU’s student government, election time has come, leaving the fate of the Union in the students’ hands. Because the Union has undergone an extreme facelift, students must elect a strong leader as the new Union’s first president – one who will change the damaged view of the Union and offer students renewed responsibility.
The Daily Free Press editorial board endorses Deon Provost as the best candidate for Union president because he has the most potential to fill just that role. Provost has demonstrated the ability to give the Union a fresh start by offering a realistic and reasonable approach to the presidency, and while the main issues for students right now are bringing cable to campus and changing the Guest Policy, Provost has set his sights higher: general student happiness.
Next year’s president should focus on broad goals, and Provost’s head seems to be in the right place. His ideas about coordinating different BU constituencies, communicating with administrators and working on building community create a strong platform, and the Union needs a leader with a strong plan.
Provost is also charismatic, and that should help make him someone students can come to when they have problems with student life and allow him to guide the Union’s fledgling structure to success. He has stood out in the past through his involvement in many aspects of the Union. He has always been one to voice his opinions in Senate meetings this year and he took the initiative to bring back the Multicultural Affairs Committee after “True 2” set it aside. His deep involvement in bringing minority students to campus and increasing awareness of minority events will only benefit the entire student body. While he is part of the problem-plagued current Union, he is enough of an outsider to bring in a fresh look.
Experience in both leadership roles and the current Union should be extremely important as the Union works to reshape itself effectively, and Provost has the most well rounded base of experience. As a senator, he has stood out from the crowd as a voice for reform, pushing to form a committee during the fall to look at the Union’s problems, and as a true leader, pushing many initiatives ahead. By moving into a more powerful and pivotal position as president of the student body, he will bring a fresh look and valuable experience.
Mike Myers has more direct Union experience as the current vice president of residence life, but he does not seem to have the vocal leadership ability next year’s president will need. Myers was once a senator and he does have a large amount of experience, which helped him to play a significant role in a number of initiatives this year, but he is too close to the current regime and too reserved to be the welcoming leader the body must have as it fits in around its new skeleton. His ideas are high quality and his track record speaks for itself, but he is simply not the right leader for next year.
Rowan Armor also has a notable amount of experience in dealing with the Union as former Senate vice chair, but his campaign has focused on issues that do not affect the majority of the student body – they are not the general priorities a student body president needs. Whether or not the College of Arts and Sciences should count American Sign Language as a foreign language is an important issue, but it should not be one of the main goals of a Union president, and the issue is a main part of his platform.
Anthony Garofalo does have a great base of experience as the current School of Hospitality Administration president, but Garofalo’s platform seems the least developed of the five. Though his desire to listen to students and create initiatives out of their ideas does sound like a good start, next year’s president will need far more drive and leadership to make the Union strong.
Eric Cotter has absolutely no experience in either leadership roles or student government, which would make it extremely difficult to lead an undergraduate student body of almost 18,000. And his strong attachment to the unofficial slate “PSYCHOTIC” – which he said is the reason he decided to run – demonstrates a lack of confidence in himself as an individual leader.
Deon Provost has the right goals for the university – plausible goals that are focused on student concerns. His plan to hold administrators accountable to students will only increase the communication between the administration and the student body. And because Provost plans to spend the summer working on the constitution – an area that has caused so many problems for the Union in the past – his immediate focus will only increase the Union’s efficiency at the beginning of the next semester.
Deon Provost is the best candidate for the job.