“I got a lot of problems with you people, and now you’re gonna hear about it!” – Frank Costanza, on Seinfeld
This is not how we feel about the current slate of candidates running, who haven’t really had a chance to screw up yet, but rather about the SA as a whole, and the changes that have been made. Below you will find our endorsements for this year’s elections, but more importantly, first we will have an airing of grievances.
The first and most obvious one is the recent changes that have been made vis a viz B-Line and B-Engaged. Whereas in the past submitting something to B-Line was quite easy and could be done the same morning of the event, now it is a burdensome process that must be done through the atrocious B-Engaged system. In addition, for some reason the SA decided that the EVP must now approve every submission himself, so each event must be submitted several days in advance. Submissions are rejected for arbitrary and silly reasons. Once a submission of ours was rejected because we did not check off “SA Chartered Organization Event” under Categories. This is ridiculous; we’ve been an SA chartered organization since 1987, why should we have to check that off? It just makes things more bureaucratic, which is not the direction we should be heading in.
At a meeting that all club E-boards had to attend, the SA e-board arrogantly told us that this change to B-Engaged was being done for our own benefit. The officers of student organizations are best equipped to know what benefits them; please do not tell us what is in our own benefit.
Secondly, the process for getting reimbursed for expenses seems excessively burdensome and complicated, to the point that when you spend your own money on something for the club, you are not sure if you are going to get paid back, and if you do get paid back, it will take at least a month. I understand the need for the SA to impose some sort of fiscal responsibility on its officers, but the current system should be simplified and fast tracked.
We will say that the SA has done a very good job running OCCT this year under challenging circumstances.
Having said all that, here are our endorsements! If you are looking for justification, you will look in vain, because it will not be provided.
President: Dillon Schade
Executive Vice President: Zach Vigliani
VP Academic Affairs: Amanda Baker
VP Multicultural Affairs: As we have been asking for the last two decades, why exactly does this position exist?
VP of Finance: Kate Tashman