It is important, even though we did not pledge our support to the Farinas/Castro ticket or the uncontested Biscayne Bay Campus candidates, that we give credit where credit is due —Congratulations Alpha Xi Delta and Phi Gamma Delta.
Thus, we congratulate Laura Farinas and Alex Castro at the Modesto Maidique Campus and Pablo Haspel and Oluwatobi Adekoya at BBC, and hope to cultivate relationships for the good of the student body.
With that in mind, we’d also like to address concerns that The Beacon has noticed since election season.
An uncontested campaign at BBC and a Greek-dominated one at MMC is indicative of an overall student disinterest. However, 9,000 people voted.
The aggressiveness of supporters —mostly fraternity and sorority members— decked out in campaign paraphernalia, and armed with a laptops in one hand and iPads in the other, needs to be discussed since it played a large role in this year’s election.
Aside from being obnoxious, it sets up two problems:
First, accosting students who probably have no knowledge of Student Government candidates, while as a supporter, you are wearing a shirt with a candidate’s name on it, does not promote involvement in school politics: it just gets quick votes.
Secondly, it completely depletes the library’s reserve of iPads and laptops for the entire day, leaving a disadvantage for the students who might actually need them for schoolwork—the University’s purpose for providing these resources.
Perhaps more so than in any other year, social media played a huge role in this year’s election.
Certainly, there was some not so private mudslinging, one noted racist comment, and too many default photos changed to candidates’ photographs; but mostly, social media should have been capitalized to discuss actual platforms.
The Beacon hopes the Farinas/Castro team continues to utilize social media to reach out to the student body and address campus issues.
Having surely made note of last fall’s controversy regarding the lack of transparency and up-keep with the SGA’s website, Farinas and Castro would start off on a high note, and demonstrate a quick contrast from the previous administration, by keeping closer tabs on Twitter and Facebook, keeping students posted on upcoming events, SGA activity, and whatever University information students might benefit from knowing. Transparency is an issue that Farinas and Castro promised during their campaigning, and we will hold them to it.
With every new administration comes a new set of problems: grievances and quarrels within the government, complaints from certain colleges, students, professors; we can’t count on perfect harmony.
What we can hope for is constant communication among government, press, faculty and students, an appreciation for the importance SGA’s decisions, and the influence of the students they govern.
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