In the coming days, the students of Northeastern have a legitimate chance to make a substantial difference at their university. It is surprising to me too, but I’m actually talking about the elections for student body president that began yesterday. This is your opportunity to choose who will run Northeastern’s Student Government Association (SGA).
My tenure from 2009 to 2010 within SGA as director of off-campus initiatives was short-lived because of what I witnessed there. SGA suffers from utter irrelevance. This unfortunate status is perpetrated by an agenda dominated by internal strife, interpersonal conflict and ego stroking. The unfortunate fact is that the organization spends more time attempting to govern its own affairs then working on issues that concern students. I estimate that the sheer number of man hours spent in the last two years debating changes to internal rules and regulations is close to 1,000.
Sean Maloney represents a continuation of the chaotic mess of political fiasco that has comprised the last two years of SGA’s affairs. Fundamentally an opportunist, Sean has a one-item agenda: his own political advancement in SGA. This fact was made embarrassingly clear by his utter failure to properly answer questions during the first debate. If you have not seen any of the debates, I suggest you do, as they are revealing.
Northeastern deserves a president who is engrossed in the issues, and who will work for the students. In the debates, Maloney repeatedly demonstrated he is uninformed, unopinionated, and willing to lie about his opponent.
By running for president Michael Sabo has presented Northeastern with an opportunity to really transform the nature of SGA. He has the ability to be a highly effective agent of change, catalyzing a shift in the mindsets of everyone involved. Under his leadership, improving student life at Northeastern will once again become SGA’s first priority.
Michael Sabo has a track record of delivering changes that students care about. Among his achievements are 24/7 library hours and course registration waiting lists. He has also worked to reduce prices for textbooks, and improve the process of printing at InfoCommons and print stations. This is the kind of work SGA should be doing, and will be doing under a Sabo administration.
Under new leadership, SGA may very well be able to turn those 1,000 wasted hours into productive ones. The only chance for that kind of reform is Michael Sabo. Vote for him for president.
–Jay Altschuler is a senior political science major.
