With an inauguration out of the way and the peaceful transfer of power having taken place (look out for a Hustler column from yours truly on that very subject this Friday), I redirect my efforts to an arguably more important election for Vanderbilt students: Vanderbilt Student Government.
Okay, not nearly, or even remotely, as important, but I’m afraid the blog material on the VSG election is going to need some weight, so I gave it my best shot. We’ve got Hustler coverage of the two candidates’ positions (Fabiani Duarte and current VSG vice president Wyatt Smith — obnoxious campaign posters seen here), in which we see a laundry list of ideas that sound mildly appealing enough to convince students to follow the link in their e-mail next week to vote for one or the other. Also, check out podcasts at InsideVandy.com.
I do need to admit that while ribbing VSG for its (oftentimes) very real inability to affect lots of positive change for undergraduates can be fun, I’m glad to see the two candidates getting somewhat specific on the “issues.”
OASIS, the archaic and inefficient class registration program I’ve editorialized about, is one of the hottest issues concerning students; of course, it’s also the one area where I expect VSG to have the least amount of influence. The candidates’ positions are vague, naturally. Wyatt seems to miss the point on the problem with OASIS. The speed and availability is the most frustrating aspect of the program, but I don’t exactly know how adding more servers with a long-term goal of “replacing” it addresses the fact that registration for next fall will continue to be a confusing nightmare. Fabiani has an equally frustrating solution, including “moderniz(ing) OASIS by assuring seniors are not bumped from courses.” This is simply a restatement of a specific problem, not a solution.
The other academics-oriented issues, like getting more professors to post course syllabi online before registration or improving the advisor evaluation process are more of the same lip service, only with issues that really don’t get folks at Vandy riled up. Next, please.
With technology, both candidates are exactly the same when it comes to wireless access (and really, it’s a no brainer): improve the access for classroom buildings with poor service. Fabiani wants to bring back some programs that used technology to help students buy and sell textbooks and coordinate car rides out of town. This is just pointless. Students weren’t using these programs in the first place; reviving them again doesn’t make much sense.
I do like Wyatt’s creativity in the idea of an undergraduate event calendar downloadable into Google Calendar. I certainly use Google Calendar a lot more than I look at the oversized event calendar Vanderbilt gives everyone at the beginning of the semester. These are the kind of ideas that are doable and make sense for VSG. I like.
I’ll try to cover some more campaign topics over the next few days, evaluating the platform and the race as its shaping up. Hooray for mediocre undergraduate university politics!
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }