Thursday, March 26, 2009
Envision, a new coalition this year, nominated JJ Siler, Overland Park junior, and Alex Porte, Great Falls, Va., junior as its presidential and vice presidential candidates.
“As we’ve seen in the past few years, Student Senate is irrelevant to a lot of people here at KU,” Siler said. “Our issues are broad enough that anyone can get behind them. They’re things that can help KU in concrete ways that we can achieve within a year.”
Taking on Student Senate: Ethics Reform
— The creation of the Student Senate Judicial Branch: Envision said it wanted to create a judiciary branch within Student Senate that would hear appeals. It said appeals were currently sent to a board that was essentially biased, because board members were all political allies of the student body president. Envision said too much power was given to one individual and one branch of the governing body. It said adding an impartial judiciary system could create a check on power as well as oversee purchases of the Executive staff.
— Separation of powers: Envision said currently there was no separation of powers between the Executive and Legislative branches of Student Senate. It said it thought the current administration chose to consolidate its power and assume seats in the legislature rather than extending representation to many campus groups.
— Anti-bribery legislation: Envision said it wanted to propose new legislation to define gifts. Currently, Student Senate is allowed to accept gifts from the Chancellor and the Athletics Department without declaring them. Envision said it planned to enact legislation that would require senators to declare when they received a gift, the value of that gift and who gave it to them.
Taking on the City: giving students a voice in Lawrence
— Changing zoning laws and noise ordinances in the Oread neighborhood: Porte said the City of Lawrence had disenfranchised students by making unreasonable zoning and noise ordinances within the Oread neighborhood. Envision said the coalition planned to attend every city commission meeting to create a more solid student presence. It said it wanted to propose several ideas to the city and the Oread Neighborhood Association, including exemptions for students from such ordinances or reworking the current laws to make them more student-friendly in order to minimize student evictions.
— Increasing off-campus lighting: Envision said most of the crimes that occurred in Lawrence happened on and around campus. In order to combat this, Envision said it wanted to create a lighted pathway from Massachusetts Street to campus. They said increased lighting had continuously been shown as a deterrent to crime, especially robberies and sexual assaults. Porte said the coalition was already working with the School of Engineering to determine where the most effective light placement was.
Fiscal leadership: giving students the tools to succeed
Envision is seeking to provide students with the tools they need in order to succeed at the University. This means providing affordable financial planning for the students who need it, as well as opportunities to manage money for students interested in careers in finance. Using a model that reflects Envision’s extensive research into this project, it hopes to create a self-sustaining center within a matter of years.
— Envision’s financial planning center: Envision said it planned to provide free financial counseling and planning services to students through a financial planning center. Students would receive advice about things such as paying bills and creating budgets from KU employees. The center would also help students apply for scholarships and financial aid.
— Interactive programming: Envision said the financial planning center would provide hands-on advice and host workshops for students regarding issues such as the current recession, how to begin an investment portfolio or how to get involved in the financial sector of business.
— The student investment fund: Envision has proposed creating an investment fund in which students could gain experience investing money into the market. Financial planning center faculty would oversee the investments. Student Senate would be responsible for a significant portion of the initial investment into an endowment account, but it said it would also seek private donations. Envision said the ultimate goal of the student investment fund was to provide operational funding for the financial planning center so that it could become self-sustaining.
Taking on the University: environmentalism as an economic solution
Envision said it was committed to environmentalism for its own sake, but also realized that it was one of the best ways for the University to cut budgets in a time of need. It said it planned to push sustainability to the top of the agenda and planned on spending capital improvement funds from both student fees and Student Senate.
“There’s an attitude of sustainability,” Porte said. “Last year it was an idea, but this year it’s a way of life.”
— ReRev Investment in the Ambler Student Recreation Center: Envision said it planned to outfit 15 elliptical machines in the recreation center with generators that would capture energy created by students while they exercised to power the recreation center. Envision said they were the most efficient machines at transferring energy and there would be room on the grid to expand the system by 10 more machines in the future.
— KU Recycling/Environmental Stewardship Investment: Envision said it planned to expand recycling on campus. It said new equipment had already been purchased, so the only restriction to how much could be recycled on campus was the number of recycling pick-up sites on campus. Porte said Envision planned to start putting recycling bins in all the residence halls, which would require a one-time cost of about $10,000 from the Student Senate reserve account.
— Revolving sustainability fund: Envision said it met with KU Endowment leaders to create an account that would fund campus sustainability initiatives.
“It’s essentially a loan from Endowment, and we use this loan to pay for big, cost-sustainable projects on campus,” Porte said. “From these projects we save a lot. That saved money we put directly as a down payment on the loan and we get more back. We reinvest the dividends. It’s deceptively simple.”
He said with money going into campus and money flowing back into the account through smart investment, it would create a revolving endowment fund that wold have the potential to grow immensely in a small time-frame. Envision said it had already received support from KU Endowment leaders.
Our pledge to accountability: “Have a say before you pay”
“This is something that has been tossed around Senate for a long time,” Porte said. “Any fee increase would have to be voted on by students. Every student should know exactly what fee increases are going on and more importantly why. That will foster a culture of accountability.”
More information about Envision and its platform issues is available on its Web site at envisionku.org.
— Edited by Carly Halvorson
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Comments
Campus elections 2009: Envision
These are some really good ideas- I'd like to see some of them actually happen next year!
Campus elections 2009: Envision
I just hope you or Students of Liberty can unseat the unethical United Students. Both of your groups have terrific ideas and it upsets me more and more everyday that a group that ousts a treasurer for telling the truth - simply because they can, irritates met to no end.
Campus elections 2009: Envision
The issues regarding taking on the City of Lawrence sound like they came directly off the 2003 Delta Force platform. Of course, the noise ordinance is a slight variation. However, beware of those who might promise to work with you on City Ordinace 7323 and 7326...because I'm not seeing a lot of city movement. Also you should probably learn some of these ordinaces by name and not just refer to them as student unfriendly.
Also good luck squaring your real life stockmarket game with state funds.
Finally, I think I about lost it when I read your pledge is "Have a say before you pay". I sure hope Andy Knopp, Catherine Bell and KUnited do not claim infringement on their ideas he he. It just so happens that was their slogan in the 2003 Student Senate elections.
So overall, good job of just rehashing and running on ideas of a race that was run 6 years ago. The other problem there is that the student areas are rapidly changing. Areas dominated by student rentals could be on the decline in favor of huge complexes like the Grove and the Reserve. Someone told me that Lawrence was adding 1600 beds in complexes like these and this will probably decrease students in the areas you are hoping to address. As more young families and first-time homebuyers gobble up these homes these ordinaces will be hard to overturn.
Campus elections 2009: Envision
I'm a little upset that Envision is taking the judicial branch idea as their own. It was actually thought up by some people on the Rights Committee and not just by Envision people.
Campus elections 2009: Envision
I'm glad to see most of these things on the platform. I don't think it really matters where the ideas came from, especially if they originated several years ago and should have been implemented back then. If Envision has the drive to actually turn this platform into policy, we will all be better off for it.
Campus elections 2009: Envision
If "have a say before you pay" was a good idea in 2003, it should be an even better idea now. In 6 years time, student fees have skyrocketed, and only a few of those fee increases have been put to a referendum vote. If this policy had actually been implemented in 2003, we wouldn't have to campaign for it.
Our Law senator, Eric Foss, said that it would be acceptable to run the judicial branch as a platform issue because he drafted the legislation to make it happen. We believe that the impartial judiciary is important enough that it must be a campaign issue--a reform campaign should direct attention towards our current system of governance and how it is failing the students. Impartial oversight is a necessary addition to our system of governance. We are including this in our campaign because we have the drive and support to turn this idea into reality.
The Student Investment Fund would be a private endowment account, not an account paid for with state money. That's the difference between our plan and United Students--we aren't spending a dime of state money to make this happen.
A recent update on our platform: the Student Environmental Awareness Board approved funding for the Ambler Recreation Center project, ReRev. We will implement this idea as soon as possible and we will look to expand the project by ten machines in the 2009-2010 academic year.
Campus elections 2009: Envision
Well the only problem comes with Have A Say Before You Pay when you are trying to establish a threshold of when a increase goes to referendum or is all increases? If it is all increases, well that is basically just passing the buck. I can understand sending fees to referendum that are at least a couple of dollars or in some cases higher than that. However, anything under $0.50 just says "Student Senate should not be trusted"...which can be true at times.
Campus elections 2009: Envision
In my discussions with people about "Have a Say Before You Pay" the consensus has generally been that votes on fees necessary to do anything other than maintain current levels of service would be required.
If, for example, the cost of a particular service provided by Watkins were increased to due inflation in that particular market (or overall inflation,) the fee could correspondingly increase with it without need for a referendum.
However, if Watkins wanted to start providing back surgery, a fee increase would be necessary.
Campus elections 2009: Envision
Yes, well, unfortunately for Envision, Eric Foss wasn't the only one who sat in on the subcommittee to make that bill happen. But that's fine if he wants to take credit for all of it (not to say he didn't play a huge, important role in the entire process, I think he did). However, I was under the impression that those RIGHTS committee members had been working on something for RIGHTS committee and not for envision. That is what they were told. Furthermore, I personally believe that you just made it partisan by calling it one of your platform issues.
Campus elections 2009: Envision
I want the bill to pass. Whether they run it as a platform or not, it is a good bill, and it should pass. The passage of a good bill should be all that matters.
Now, by making it partisan, we stand to have +60% of Senate not vote for it, because it has become a platform issue - and as angsty young politicians, many senators succumb to peer pressure.
I sure hope that it does not get shot down because of this. It's a damn fine idea.
Campus elections 2009: Envision
have a say before you pay is absolutely stupid - in theory its good, kind of...but you're telling me that with the student body so apathetic to student government already, you think you could get a voter turnout without an election going just for each bill? good idea, not going to work, hope you don't get elected, my votes with students of liberty
Campus elections 2009: Envision
BOOM! Roasted!
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