The Hatchet’s editorial board urges both candidates and voters to focus on tangible goals in the upcoming elections.
“Here is a piece of breaking news: nobody – absolutely nobody – cares about SA internal politics, except the SA itself.
Revolutionizing the SA isn’t going to make students care. Small, tangible changes that touch students’ daily lives will alter student perception of the organization. A working online test bank, a syllabus bank, getting Trader Joe’s on GWorld, a text book loan system (don’t just say you will reduce textbook costs) – anything that is feasible and will at least slightly improve student life fits the bill.”
I completely disagree with the assumption that nothing can be done about the predatory J St. spending requirements. I’m continually surprised with how many students have forgotten that Sodexho’s money-funnel suddenly appeared just two years ago, over a year after Sodexho signed their 10-year contract with the University in July, 2006 according to Sodexho’s own website: http://www.sodexousa.com/usen/newsroom/press/pressreleases2006/gw072606.asp .
Now, I’m not sure if the GWU-Sodexho contract has since been formally re-written to incorporate a section legitimizing Sodexho’s embezzlement of student money, but if such a contractual change was in fact made so quickly, what would keep us from undoing it with equal expedience? When the Campus and Support services office held “town-hall meetings” on the J St. issue in Fall 2007, representatives from Sodexho and GW alike assured students that the J St. plan was tentative, and could freely be changed or done away with at any year. Has this position magically reversed over the past year? The fact of the matter is there has been a dire lack of student advocacy on the J St. matter over the past two years, despite how incredibly important it remains to students. Numerous SA leaders (some of whom now running for SA executive again) have themselves promised over the past couple years to take action against J St. spending, however absolutely no progress has been made. In fact, NOW some representatives within the SA have are retreating, now saying that such changes are wholly impossible. They have given up on the simple goal of restoring our GWorld System to what it was like just two years ago, and this is unacceptable.
As a candidate for SA President I am running to ensure that the SA addresses this issue which has been neglected since it arose two years ago. I’m uniquely qualified to represent GW students in this facility; In West Des Moines, Iowa I have served on the City Council’s committee in charge of establishing nutrition guidelines and contractual agreements with Aramark, our school district’s food service supplier. As the sole student representative in this committee, I was in charge of speaking on behalf of over fifteen hundered high school students to ensure that our interests were met. I went out of my way to schedule personal meetings with our school district’s superintendent, in addition to Aramark management, in order to make sure students kept our vending machines, off-campus lunch privileges, and student-run coffee shop. Through this experience I’ve become intimately familiar with food service contracting and I’ve facilitated negotiations students, school management, and food service company managers numerous times before on the behalf of student interests. My approach to this issue will be entirely different from anything yet seen at GW in that I will take tangible change on this issue more seriously than anyone else has yet offered to. Should it popularly arise in the student body’s interest, I would not hesitate to seriously consider organizing a boycott of Sodexho’s services, and I would stop at nothing to fight on this issue so long as it remains important to the student body.
The J St. mandatory spending requirement was a horrible deal for us students. There’s nothing desirable about being told where you have to spend your money, and GW’s Freshmen and Sophomores are especially familiar the inconvenience and waste of this ridiculous program. During this election time students are free to subscribe to the pessimism of The Hatchet and SA candidates who have given up on changing J St., however I sincerely hope that students realize that there are honest people like me out there who are willing to take the fight against J St. spending to a whole new level. Also, I challenge anyone to write a post longer than this.
To the commenter above me: no-one is going to read your writing if it’s just a block of letters. Use paragraphs.
To the article, nicely put.
Wow – seriously people, don’t skip that long comment up there. Lopez has got my vote. Just say no to J St!