This is the third in a series of stories examining the slates running for Student Government executive board for the 2013-14 academic year.
Dexter McCoy, a College of Communication junior running for Boston University Student Government president with The BU Ignition, said his slate intends to strengthen the student body’s voice on campus.
“We are aiming for getting a seat on the University Council where decisions are made,” McCoy said. “We recognize that, for far too long, Student Government has been trying to fix the symptoms of the problem and it’s time to fix the problem.”
The BU Ignition slate also includes Saurabh Mahajan, a College of Arts and Sciences freshman seeking the position of executive vice president, Bonnie Tynes, a School of Education freshman seeking vice president of internal affairs and Aditya Rudra, a School of Management junior seeking vice president of finance.
McCoy served as SG president during the fall 2012 semester and Rudra serves as the spring 2013 SG president.
Mahajan said he is running for executive vice president to make SG an outlet for the student voice on campus.
“What I’ve seen is that there’s so much potential for Student Government to be that student voice — that medium between students and administration, what it should be, what it is at other universities, and to truly represent the students and serve them,” he said. “I’m running to make that happen.”
Rudra said strengthening the relationships between the student body, SG and BU administrators is crucial.
“Certain things BU used to take for granted such as having a student-run, student-elected Allocations Board and a student-run, student-elected Programming Council are no longer just given to us,” he said.
Rudra said if the student body elected The BU Ignition slate, it would send a strong message to the BU administration.
“We organized our entire platform around a single issue — getting a seat at the decision-making table,” Rudra said. “If we get elected, it would be a clear message, a mandate, to administration indicating that the students want a voice in the decision-making process.”
McCoy said one of the reasons SG has struggled in past talks with administrators because BU officials believe SG is too concerned with the immediate future.
“Part of the problem is that administrators say we’re not in the room where decisions are made because we are too focused on right now — we’re focused on the things that will affect us immediately,” he said. “… So we’re talking about developing a 10-year plan for student life and leadership on campus.”
McCoy also said he hopes to improve student life around campus in concrete ways, such as by expanding dining options and giving money to students to fund campus improvement projects.
“We want to look to having the ability to pay for the T and taxis with convenience points,” he said. “You should be able to use your dining points at [Raising] Cane’s and Jamba Juice. We want to bring administrators to the students on a consistent basis to talk in an open forum. We want to give folks money to do campus improvement projects.”
Tynes said members of The BU Ignition will work well together because they share similar goals.
“We bicker like an old married couple, but we have an identical image that is driving us forward with strength unmatched,” she said in an email. “A functional dynamic is formed when diverse and unique people come together and use their differences as a tool to create a singular purpose.”
The BU Ignition is set to run against two other slates, Can’t B Without U and Becoming United, for SG executive board for the 2013-14 academic year. Voting for the election opens April 22.
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