Another autumn, another unexpected October blizzard and yet another UCSU election played out last week in front of thousands of students.
“Back by popular demand – Democracy,” said a flyer that advertised that an election was going on at all.
But a mere 951 votes were cast in the UCSU elections which took place the week of Oct. 26-31. All five Representative-at-Large seats were won by members of the FOCUS ticket.
Rebecca Aguilar, Hunter Barnett, Sanket Merchant, Blaine Pellicore and Will Taylor all say they plan to increase student involvement and re-examine the budget with a fine-toothed comb, among other plans.
They are due to take their seats Thursday.
The candidates said they were excited about their triumph, but some said they felt the FOCUS ticket’s experience spelled out a win for them.
Blaine Pellicore, a 21-year-old senior majoring in international affairs and Arabic and current president of Legislative Council, said this was the third year he’s run in an election for UCSU.
“This is the third I was elected, and the least impressive of the races, I guess. But I’m an old hand at this,” Pellicore said.
Will Taylor, a 21-year-old senior political science major and current chair of Representative Council, said he was pleased about the win.
“I was confident that the FOCUS ticket would sweep the elections due to our faithful constituency bases and our unparalleled level of experience with UCSU,” Taylor said.
Rebecca Aguilar, a 20-year-old junior double majoring in Spanish and international affairs, said she has been involved at the university since her freshman year, and that as a Representative-at-Large she plans on sticking to her platform promise of fiscal responsibility.
“One thing we really to continue to do is to keep student fees as low as possible. With the last budgeting cycle I think we were really fiscally responsible and we had that in the back our mind the entire time,” Aguilar said. “With the university taking cuts from the state, we still want to provide students with the best experience that they can have.”
Pellicore agreed that the budget should be a central focus.
“The best way that I know how to do [the budget] is to integrate a new system as to how centers present their budget scenario,” Pellicore said.
The candidates also expect to lead the way nationally for sustainability. CU’s student government is already considered the first zero-waste student government in the country.
“We’re going to continue to expand on the programs we have to make the university more environmentally friendly,” Aguilar said. “We’re going to try to do that on some of the older buildings on campus and make them more energy efficient and set the standard nationally for sustainability.”
Pellicore said he is working on creating a house party registration system, and Taylor said he is hoping to create a student government for schools besides Arts and Sciences and Business as well as working on improvements at the Rec Center.
“I am currently working on establishing an internal student government for the School of Education,” Taylor said. “After the establishment of the Education Student Government, I plan on assisting with drafting a referendum for the renovations of the Recreational Center.”
Central to each candidate’s agenda, however, is the issue of student involvement.
“One option that I am currently proposing is a voter raffle or lottery. When a student votes for UCSU candidates, he or she is automatically put into a pool of fellow voters who are eligible to receive various prizes. The prizes may range from free iPods to gift cards donated from establishments on the University Hill,” Taylor said.
According to Pellicore, a crucial step in the process of student involvement is making sure that they’re aware of the government in the first place.
“I would like to see Jason Gonzalez [director of media relations for UCSU] working on presenting the opportunity for students, especially freshmen, to obtain knowledge and possibly integrating student government as part of their CU experience. It’s a very different job to get a senior or fifth year senior to suddenly care where their student fees are being spent. They’ve already built a life at CU. And unless student government shows up on their radar early, then it’s not going to be as important as it should be in their college career,” Pellicore said.
However, the candidates remain optimistic about the upcoming year and the influence they wield on campus.
“I think the most qualified people were definitely elected,” Aguilar said. “Collectively we have so much experience and we all have a really big passion to make the university better, which is the type of people who theoretically should be on student government.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Sheila V Kumar at Sheila.v.kumar@colorado.edu.
