After a closed meeting with all of the candidates for this week's Student Association elections, The Spectrum voted by a closed paper ballot to endorse The Student Party in its entirety.
The newspaper supports the election of Hassan Farah for president and Ernesto Alvarado for vice president. Jordan Fried joins them as a potential treasurer, while Emily Bauer, Nicholas Baxter, Amanda Jonas and Alex Wallach have gained the newspaper's support as potential SUNY delegates.
At this point, the editorial board of The Spectrum feels as though each party line is accompanied by shortcomings. With this in mind, this newspaper feels that The Student Party is the most likely to meet their own goals, as well as the expectations of students.
Bauer, in particular, was the only candidate to win the full and unanimous support of the paper's editorial board: she will truly be an asset in bringing change to UB and, with all hope, to SUNY's relationship with New York.
At this point, the biggest thing we would like to see in next year's administration is a break from this year's.
Hassan and Alvarado represent the experience necessary to do more than play house on the third floor, but their lack of deep involvement with the current administration is a welcome change. Their inexperience with the upper echelons of student government does little to sully their image; in fact much of their appeal lies in their position as semi-outsiders.
The positions of the party could be generally summed up as "mundane changes to benefit the student body." Nothing they propose is very radical; more security in the areas we need it, easier procedures for SA clubs and greater involvement of the student body. Believe it or not they have a feasible plan to cut costs of textbooks, too - one that seems initially farfetched, but with details, accrues to a realistic goal.
We endorse a treasurer with the utmost hesitation. Unified and The Student Party's potential treasurers seem to have done little to stop the current administration from running amok on our finances, despite their prominent positions next to current treasurer John Martin. It was of obligation, and not a sense of assurance, that we call on our readers to support Fried, if for nothing more than for the sake of change as a whole.
We support The Student Party over the alternative choices due to the Goldilocks dilemma we, the students, face. Unified is too close to this year's administration; Students' Voice is too far from experienced and without a core focus; The Student Party came off as the middle of the line porridge.
As SA delegates Bauer, Baxter, Jonas and Wallach are competent, variable and passionate in their individual causes. It is evident that they will work well together in Albany, and will actually have the courage to face New York's rough and tough politicians.
The quarter of hopefuls presented themselves in a manner that left little room for error and uncertainty. They would like to see UB continue to improve its reputation as a green campus, and seem committed to what could best be called intelligent and realistic use of resources, from reorganizing UB's transportation to fighting to get more of our tuition increase directed back into the school instead of the state budget shortfall.
Above all we need a change in response to the consequences of a year of apathy. Change is a welcome necessity, and above all, we feel The Student Party is the most likely to bring it.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
