This year’s Student Government Association (SGA) presidential election started as a contest between Robert Ranley and Marines Piney. Two weeks after she accepted her nomination, Piney withdrew from the race. I had supported Piney and agreed with her campaign’s focus on academic issues. I felt that the election would be somehow lacking without a champion for the causes I believed in, so I launched my own bid to carry my principles and priorities to the presidency.
Building a campaign against an opponent with a two-week head start has not been an easy task – especially faced with the uncertainty of the motion to block my nomination, which the Senate rightfully crushed last week. Yet I am proud of what my campaign has achieved in such a short time. I have said, loud and clear, that the “business as usual” sentiment in SGA has to change. We have to keep up our efforts to make Northeastern a center of academic excellence. We have to do more to extend a hand of friendship to the many communities that surround us. We have to be better representatives, who always remember that students come first.
In this election, you might hear Ranley’s catchy slogan, “Northeastern runs on Ranley.” I’ve never thought a campaign should be one man’s fan club, but rather a movement or an open dialogue among the students about their concerns and their hopes. That’s the kind of campaign I’m striving to lead, because I think it’s what we deserve.
Northeastern deserves better than Ranley’s sloppy, ill-advised proposal for a Renewable Energy Fee. Ranley spent the better part of a year designing this new fee, but he already admits that his proposal lacks key provisions and needs to be reworked and reconsidered by the SGA Senate. I know that my priorities are complex: fix the NU Shuffle, re-evaluate the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution, engage the student body. That’s why I’ll work to bring more students to the table, especially from the too-often underrepresented communities on campus: co-op students, transfer students, minorities, freshmen and off-campus students.
Northeastern deserves better than Ranley’s half-hearted, unintelligent dismissal of diversity. Robert himself says that our diversity should be measured by students’ “personalities, hobbies or even their favorite T line!” It is simply not right to underestimate the impact of hearing all the voices of Northeastern.
At the end of the day, your student government claims to represent you, the 15,000 undergraduate Huskies. My priorities are your priorities, and a vote for me is a vote that will put students first in your student government. Enough with the infighting. Enough with the gimmicks.
– Dan Kamyck is a candidate for the SGA presidency.
