Last week, I interviewed all the presidential candidates, then wrote a three page, 6,000 word feature in The Stute. These in-depth interviews, combined with my previous SGA experience, gives me a good pulse on a successful SGA candidate — and only one ticket stands out to me as leading the student body successfully: E.J. Hannah and Jason Buckman.
I’m going to discount everyone’s political speak. Almost anyone can talk about empowerment, or ideals — and make it sound good. The SGA works in limited capacity. Hannah and Buckman’s platform is grounded in realities: their platform does not have unattainable, lofty goals.
Almost every initiative not related to clubs needs to be approved by some members of administration. While I firmly hold that the student government shouldn’t blindly follow the administration’s ideals, almost every item on their platform is feasible, as it either is in progress or will be in progress shortly. Something will actually be done to improve the student experience here at Stevens — something that will make a tangible impact on every student on campus. They have already begun conversations on campus artwork, as well as a Stevens bike rental program and public transportation discounts. Hannah and Buckman provided all of these solutions to student problems to improve the student experience. They will realistically accomplish all of this during their term.
Additionally, their past experiences prove that these efforts will not fall flat. Hannah has successfully reserved gym time for women, coordinated the purchase of furniture for the Babbio Patio, helped push for the creation of a Campus Garden, and successfully hosted a “Week of Kindness” to improve campus culture. Buckman has successfully worked to restructure BIO 281: Biology and Biotechnology to integrate a closer relationship between students and faculty, and provided Stevens students with resources to pursue housing outside the Office of Residence Life. Out of any set of candidates, they have the strongest track record of improving the undergraduate student experience here at Stevens. Why not have a President and Vice President who will actually change your experience for the better at Stevens? Why not have ones that have proven that they will?
Looking at the debate, I appreciated the snippy comments from Adrian. Some comments were okay, but others were not even targeted at one of his opponents. Yikes. Other highlights of the debate included Seidman and Pepa pledging their honor and the “totally not staged” responses from every candidate for the salad question.
However, each of the candidates at the debate, for the most part, spoke political speak or just a restated their viewpoints that were already addressed within the Stute interviews, but with even more factual inaccuracies — too many inaccuracies to take the time to thoroughly fact check even a third of them.
Be sure to vote for E.J. Hannah and Jason Buckman at stevens.edu/vote!
The views expressed in this column belong to the author and do not necessarily represent the views of The Stute.
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