UW Green Bay Trip, and the beginning of the Campaign

It has been quite the long weekend. I returned from UW Green Bay last night at 5:00, after being up there for three days for the United Council convention. I ended up getting something like nine hours of sleep throughout the weekend, and returned exhausted, although happy. I was elected to the United Council Board of Directors, which was quite an honor for me. I serve on the board with a number of passionate and powerful Student Government leaders from around the UW System, and I'm excited to be in their company. With board member Sana Khan's transfer to UWM, Milwaukee now has two members on the board. It's nice to have representation, which we surely deserve since we're paying UC $120,000 per year for membership. Immediately after being elected, I introduced my first piece of legislation to the board, which I called the "UW Financial Transparency Act." The bill calls for universal access to the UW Financial "Redbook" which lists UW school's financial expenditures. I believe that financial transparency is necessary, and access to such information should be restricted to just UW System Wi-fi connected computers. The bill will be voted on at the next convention in February.

Although I'm still feeling tired, this week is going to be huge for the campaign. I will begin collecting signatures from UWM students tomorrow, and our goal is to collect 1000 before the March 7th deadline. This week we'll be holding ASAP's first General Strategy Meeting, and I'm excited to get together and pound out campaign ideas, and improve our platform even more. We'll also be working on our website, which is set to launch in a few weeks. I'll keep everyone updated!

The Announcement

I've waited a long time to write this blog.

I hereby announce my candidacy for President of the Student Association. After much thought, I believe my experience serving the students as a Senator as well as Public Relations Director makes me qualified to help lead the organization into a year of productivity and progress. I have learned so much from my co-workers, the members of the Romero-Boeck administration, about SA policy, legislative advocacy, and administrative diplomacy. I've sharpened my skills at solving student problems during my year as a senator, and devoted many hours to learning SA history. I'm confident that the coalition I've helped build will serve the students of our campus like no other administration before us.

I've spent the last few months working on finding the most qualified and passionate people to run with, and I couldn't be happier with the results. We've crafted a party that will generate new and innovative ideas, without getting bogged down in the bureaucratic process that all too often ruins SA. Joining me are many current senators, whose dedication to advancing the will of the students shines through. I've planned an executive branch that will provide me and my running mate with honest advice as well as fresh ideas. As of tonight, our party boasts membership of 37 students. I've decided to run under the Achieving Student Action Through Progress Party (ASAP) which has the honorable history of having been a bulwark against corrupt administrations, and non-inclusive policies. ASAP is also the party of the Romero-Boeck administration. Although I didn't run as an ASAP candidate last year, I am glad to have worked with so many of their members, and I respect their drive. This year, the ASAP platform will be different, however our dedication to continuing the fight for increased student benefit will remain unchanged.

Unlike last year, ASAP will be facing some competition, as two current senators have announced they are going to be running also. Senators Campbell and Pugel are in the process of forming parties, and I expect them to give me quite a fight for office. During the last senate meeting, I amended the IEC bylaws to demand a public debate between presidential candidates. I look forward to meeting my opponents in this forum, as well as the chance to show the students ASAP's ideas for a better campus. I'm sure all you readers also want to know what my plans are, and what ways ASAP is going to work to improve the lives of UWM students, and I assure you that they will be made public soon. Our official website is going public in two weeks, and I'll also update on here with more info as the days progress. I probably could have waited a bit longer for this, but the excitement got the best of me!

I'll be heading to Green Bay this weekend for a UC meeting, and may run for a spot on the board. I'll update soon after with a report of how that went. Until then, I look forward to the many conversations I'll have with you all, as well as all the hard work that lies ahead. I pledge to give it my all, and the students will not be disappointed.

Cheers,

Alex.

Holiday Menace Update

Happy Holidays Menace fans! I hope everyone is enjoying the month long break from classes and the general drudgery of school. I know I am! Although I took a few weeks break from general SA business, I began to yearn for the old office, and my comfy little cubicle. I also have quite a bit of work to do before the semester starts! In the P.R. department, we want to start getting more response from the student body in regards to SA events, decisions, etc. I'm going to begin drafting plans to place suggestion boxes around campus, and I also plan to take over the "pissed@uwm" email address.

While in the office today, Brent and I stumbled upon a dossier from the Physical Environment Committee, (that's the committee responsible for approving the CSM parking plan, still an unmitigated disaster, and bane of student welfare.) It seems taking away free student parking isn't the only thing these jokers have been planning. The lengthy package was a plan to completely ban smoking from every inch of the campus. That's right comrades, PEC is working on a way to stamp out cigarettes from UWM for good. Included in the plan was a report from the University of Kentucky-Louisville which explained how they banned smoking on campus, with much success. The report claimed the reason behind this gross infraction of student rights was to "promote healthier lifestyles and reduce campus pollution." Well I'll be fucked. Here we have another example of administration using undemocratic and heavy-handed tactics to enforce a rule without any real student support. Why undemocratic, you ask? PEC is a multi-member committee with around ten permanent members. Of those, three are students. Even though there are 30,000 of us on campus, and our tuition pays their salaries, it seems administration always expects their wishes to prevail.

If the powers that be were really so concerned with student health, they'd pay more attention to providing the campus with healthy options on campus, such as Vegan and Vegetarian options. If they were so concerned with reducing waste, they could take steps to ban water bottles, and enforce the use of refillable canisters. Hell, if cigarettes are such a problem, why not purchase some cigarette butt tubes, and place them around the entrances to popular buildings?

Regardless of whether you smoke or not, one must understand that these types of encroachments on student rights are reprehensible. We must take a strong stand here, because today it may be the smokers, tomorrow, who knows?

I plan to bring this up with the two student members of the PEC I know personally, Travis and Anthony, and urge them to vote "No" on this madness. I'll make sure to keep everyone updated.

Enjoy the rest of break!

-Red Menace, out