The following is the second part of a three-part series exploring this year’s Student Union Executive Board slates.
‘True 2’ slate members want to bring educational cable to all residences, finalize plans for a 24-hour study lounge, promote post-game spirit parties, ensure funding for campus Greek life and continue reforming the Student Union constitution, they said last night in an interview with The Daily Free Press.
‘The ‘True 2′ slate is going to provide the truth to Boston University students,’ said Carl Woog, ‘True 2’ presidential candidate and current Union vice president of Student Affairs. ‘True representation, true services, true pride and true voice.’
Woog said the main goal of the slate would be to procure educational cable access for students. Students would be able to access cable news channels and BU television stations, along with other educational channels, under the plan, Woog said.
‘Our paramount policy change will be to bring educational cable to the entire campus,’ he said. Also, ‘a local access channel that would allow students to learn from special lectures that are on campus and that would allow student groups to advertise to each other.’
Half of the ‘True 2’ slate members currently serve on the Student Union Executive Board. The remaining members all served as senators this past year.
Executive vice presidential candidate Remie Ferreira noted the large amount of representation and experience his slate had with campus organizations.
‘We represent over 30 organizations between the eight of us,’ he said.
Ferreira also said the representations equated to six organizations per person, including such organizations as the track and field team, orientation advisors and the Greek system. He said slate members’ experience with student organizations was noteworthy, though their experience in the Student Union was more important.
‘More importantly, we have had the year experience [in the Student Union],’ he said. ‘We have seen the negatives and the positives we know there is very rarely a middle ground in the Student Union.’
VP of Academic Affairs candidate Dave Bresler is the only candidate currently running for the same position he already holds. Bresler said this would give him better insight into his position and aid him in continuing current work on campus issues.
Giovanna Loiotile, VP of Public Relations candidate, expressed the importance of an increase in communication between the Student Union and the student body, a statement adamantly supported by her slate members.
‘For public relations, my main job is to saturate the campus with [knowledge] about events that are going on,’ she said, ‘in some way through providing flat screens in the GSU and other forms of communication.’
‘True 2’ candidate for VP of Student Affairs Erik Dawson agreed with Loiotile.
‘Everything we will be working for in the coming years is to facilitate positive change for the students,’ he said. ‘One thing that we really want to work on is connecting the students.’
Joe Rollin, ‘True 2’ candidate for VP of Financial Affairs, said the slate would not look at their roles as political, but as student representatives.
‘We’re not really politicians we are students,’ he said. ‘When I am not doing something in the Student Union, I am talking to students conversationally. I am not on the soapbox all the time with them.’
VP of Multicultural Affairs candidate Lauren Rodwell said the importance of her role is being one of a small number of minorities at BU.
‘Obviously I am an African-American,’ she said. ‘That’s why I would be a good representative. It would be a personal experience.’
Rodwell also said she had spent almost two years looking at what needed to be changed and knows what needs to be done.
In terms of other specific issues the ‘True 2’ slate wishes to tackle, VP of Residence Life candidate Mike Myers said he hopes to increase the quality of life and the knowledge of life on campus available specifically to first-year students.
While Woog and the rest of the ‘True 2’ slate said there were many positives to this year’s ‘True’ slate, one negative aspect of the current slate was the lack of information given from closed door meetings.
‘Perhaps we could have kept [students] better informed about what was happening in those meetings,’ he said. ‘It’s a goal of ours to improve that.’
The ‘True 2’ slate is one of three slates running for the Union Executive Board against ‘Truant’ and ‘URANUS.’ Elections will be held Apr. 1-3.
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