Changing the face of IUSA

Once every year, students find themselves trying to escape from those running for office in the IU Student Association elections. The tickets that come together make T-shirts, fliers and banners, and try to convince everyone they know to vote for them. They hold press conferences and unveil platforms. They travel to residence halls, greek houses and student organizations to get endorsements and votes. They always speak about making IUSA more efficient, more accessible and more student-friendly.\nShortly after, when the fliers have come down and T-shirts have been burned, the campus returns to "normal" and IUSA gets forgotten by most. Those who are elected seem to vanish until the next election.\nWhat strikes me as peculiar is students are asked to care about something they only see or hear about once a year. While IUSA does good things for students, its existence and purpose are a mystery to most. \nAs I have observed and reflected upon these happenings, I have felt a strong desire to get involved and try to bring some substantive change to IUSA. It is time for students to re-imagine student government at IU.committed to doing just that. Imagine stands for returning IUSA to students and focusing on real, substantive issues. What makes us different in this election is the presence of vision: a vision for student government at IU.\nI believe that elected officials need to be visible all year, not just during a campaign. I believe in building platform and legislative agendas by listening to and interacting with students. I believe that students should know of IUSA's existence, both why and how it "stands for students."\nWhat I am talking about is something different from what has been seen in prior elections. For example, rather than talking about change machines and meal points, I want to talk about broader, more sweeping changes in the residence halls, changes that include but are not limited to checklist platform items.\nFirst, we want to make a number of structural changes to IUSA so that it is able to better serve and stand for students. Such changes include examining the current directorship structure to ensure it is effective. Also, we want to find new ways to involve congress in University and community affairs. For example, we want to require off-campus senators to attend at least one Bloomington City Council meeting per year, and have academic representatives attend academic school and department committee meetings. We want to have executives and Congress hold a series of town meetings in residence halls and greek houses throughout their terms to keep in contact with students.\nSecond, we support the Graduate Student Organization's decision to separate from IUSA and form a new student government for graduate students. Imagine would happily work with the GSO to get a new student government up and running, but would want to maintain a strong working relationship with the new graduate student government.\nThird, we want to increase awareness about sexually transmitted diseases across campus. A majority of college students are sexually active, and we believe it is critical that students have more information and resources available about STDs and how to prevent them.\nFinally, we want to work with the Residence Halls Association to make substantive changes in the residence halls. These changes include creating a meaningful link between the academic and residential sides of campus and working to get a substantial increase in resident assistant benefits and better training for residence life staff. I hope these examples convince you we are something different. If elected, we will strive to listen and talk to students and organizations all year long so students know what IUSA stands for and what it can do for them. Imagine that when you vote, and help usher in a new era for student government.