The Illinois Student Senate and I-Vote have organized a debate between the five candidates vying for the position of Student Trustee. It will be held at 8:00PM-10:00PM Thursday March 1 in the Pine Lounge at the Illini Union. The Daily Illini has learned that each candidate has been given a list of questions to be asked ahead of time. They are as follows:

1. What strategies will you pursue as Trustee to lower tuition costs?

2. What will you do to improve professor retention and reduce the burden of graduate TAs at the University?

3. How do you feel about the Global Campus Partnership? If you support implementing it, what will you do to help ensure that it is implemented effectively? If not, what do you believe are its disadvantages for this campus?

4. Campus diversity has become an increasingly ubiquitous topic on campus. What steps will you do to promote diversity at the University?

5. What campus renovation or construction projects do you wish to pursue as Trustee?

6. As Trustee, how will you address the issue of energy for this campus?

After talking with the newsroom, we have a few things to throw out there.

Firstly, we find it a bit troubling that the candidates will have had several days to come up with canned answers to these questions. Granted, with five candidates and time for rebuttals it may make for a long evening no matter how this was organized. The general opinion around the newsroom is that part of what makes true debate so important is the spontaneity of the candidates. If they know what’s coming, it’s only an invitation to rehearse rehearse rehearse rather than think think think. Since, the Student Trustee (especially in light of recent events) is one of the few student representatives that hold significant influence with the administration, we think that being able to execute is preferable to being able to perform.

Unfortunately, there have been few accomplishments of recent trustees to point to. It’s because of this that we fear that the position is merely becoming a contest of the most well-connected (or popular, if you will) people on campus rather than who it should be, the most qualified. It seems that student politics in general have merely become the training ground for the red and blue politicos of tomorrow rather than a movement truly devoted to doing good.

There was a story in The Daily Illini this week about the problem of student apathy concerning ISS. The big question is “Why?” Well, the student body (like the American public) isn’t stupid. We realize that as young adults, we aren’t the system yet. Faced with a concrete adult power structure, the impact of an extremely fluid student body will of course not be great. However, if administered properly, it will not be insignificant.

The above questions, in my opinion at least, ask far too much of a student. We should not expect whomever we elect to be able to address all these problems effectively. But by asking that they be prepared to have an answer for all these enormous problems, we force them to dilute themselves in hopes of winning the race. As a student, I don’t need somebody to tell me that tuition is too high and that they’re going to do something about it. Or that it should be our goal to be as environmentally friendly as possible. Or that class sizes should be smaller and TAs should be more effective. Or that it would be great to have Lincoln Hall fixed. Or that we need more minority representation on campus. We all know this already and agree that these things would be good. The lack of original ideas or even measurable progress is why I don’t expect that the election of any one person to have even the smallest impact on my life. But, what I do expect is for the candidate to want the job for more than just a line on the resume.

But the sad reality is that the student trustee has every reason to get cozy with the other board members (can you say letter of recommendation?) rather than to keep in tune with the needs of the student body.

So, what can be done to fix this? I’m not entirely sure but I have a place where we could start: One good idea.

One idea from each candidate. One plan, one initative, one fleshed-out proposal for something that could benefit campus. No one person should be expected to solve all the problems. Just one good idea from everyone to run on. No prepackaged answers or prepared remarks, just a declaration that you have a passion for something that actually matters and have a good idea how to make it happen.

Trustee candidates shouldn’t be afraid of saying “I don’t know” (or if you rather, ” I think this is an issue which has enormous impact on the University and I will certainly do all I can to learn about it and to work towards a solution that would be beneficial to all parties” ) if they can’t solve a problem. After all, the adults in charge of running things have already proven themselves to be very good at not being able to solve problems.

The Student Trustee should explemplify what we want all student government to be, not just merely be it’s highest office. Unfortunately for now, that doesn’t seem likely to change unless one of the candidates is willing to put ego aside and start talking turkey with us.

The organizers of the debate are encouraging students to attend the debate and ask the candidates their own questions. I hope people take advantage of this opportunity, for all of our sakes.

Campaign Facebook groups:

Chime Asonye, Mike Cashman, Katie Dunne, Paul Schmitt, Pradeep Singanallur

P.S.- It’s not possible for something to be increasingly ubiquitous.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 9:54 pm and is filed under Facebook, Campus politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.