Three groups of students who want to govern the student body have had their campaign platforms available for review since Monday.
Some platform items can be accomplished while others are unlikely, superficial promises.
Cardinal Collaboration's platform has several vague items that will be difficult for SGA to address.
The slate wants to work with the university and Parking Services to extend the parking meter maximum time.
Clearly this item was not thoroughly researched. Nancy Wray, parking services office manager, has been quoted in an Aug. 15, 2007, Daily News article saying the intent of 45-minute limits in the metered lots is to deter students from parking there and going to class.
Another platform item the slate hopes to accomplish would enable students' immediate families to receive yearly passes for the recreation facilities on campus. However, yearly passes can already be purchased through Recreation Services.
Cardinal Impact has a few unrealistic goals but also has more developed platform items.
The first illogical platform item Cardinal Impact has is to extend the hours at Bracken Library during the week before and of Finals Week. This has been tried and failed. Team Lisec worked with the library in 2005 and 2006 to test whether a 24/7 library was a viable idea. Arthur Hafner, dean of University Libraries, said in an Aug. 22, 2006, Daily News article that the cost of extending the library hours outweighed the potential benefit for students.
The slate also wants to work to ensure all students have parking access while at the Amelia T. Wood Health Center.
Allowing parking access to all students using the Health Center would require a complete renovation of the area. Unless the university plans to build a large parking garage behind the Health Center there's little chance of this ever happening.
University Coalition has several platform items that would negatively affect the financial and structural elements of the university and how it functions.
The slate wants to work with the university and students' academic studies by having all textbooks available at the library and by altering the schedule of classes.
Placing textbooks on hold for every course offered on campus at the library is outlandish. New editions come out so frequently the library would be revising its collection constantly. There are hundreds of classes offered on campus, some with more than one book.
Increasing the amount of time between classes would benefit students greatly but would cause a ripple effect through the scheduling process. Every college and every department would have to revise its schedules to allow for this change.
Overall the slates have a combination of strong and weak platform items, however, students should hold the slates accountable for their promises and demand more concrete options for change.
Instead of making broad, sweeping statements slates should choose to be direct and address issues that will affect students have arisen in the past year.
The Students for Concealed Carry on Campus are trying to become a recognized student group and hope to one day have state legislation passed that will allow them to carry concealed weapons on campus with a permit.
Slates should decide if they would support the group and try to work with it or against it.
Student safety should always be a primary concern for student government. Therefore, the elected slate should work closely with administrators to decide what issues students deem worthy of emergency text messages as opposed to what the university thinks is an emergency.
Emergency text messages were not sent out on Oct. 24, 2008, when there was a shooting near the Village.
The elected slate should dedicate itself to ensuring student safety on campus. It should also try to improve the overall quality of life for the students.
One daily element of some students' lives will be greatly altered when the coffee shop in the Ball State Bookstore closes and is turned into a smoothie shop. Students, staff and faculty frequent that establishment every day for their daily doses of caffeine. The elected slate should work with the university to get another specialty coffee shop on campus to cater to the needs of the caffeinated student body.
More important than the conveniences of student life and the luxuries students adore is the quality of the education they receive while attending Ball State.
The recent hiring freeze and its potential implications on students' educations are overwhelming. Some students may fear their education will be sold to the lowest bidder as opposed to the most qualified.
Slates should spend time truly being the voice of the students and working with administration to voice the concerns of the students about how the freeze could affect their educations.
These are the issues that matter to students.
These are the issues that will influence students daily.
Tackle these issues and leave out the fluff.
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