Student leaders look past platforms

Hundreds of guidelines and policies affect the IU community of more than 36,000 students. As IU Student Association election season begins, candidates scramble to represent the student voice in the formation of these rules.\n"People are going to be very competitive," current IUSA President Tyson Chastain said of this year's election process, which started Feb. 2 when five tickets filed for candidacy. \n"We have to remember there is a difference between elections and IUSA," Chastain said. "As a ticket you have to remember that you are coming into IUSA and taking on those responsibilities."\nIUSA's principle duty is to maintain a line of communication between students and the IU administration. The differences between what students want and what the administration will allow often results in either gridlock or accusations that IUSA does not actually accomplish anything.\nThat is a charge the current IUSA administration refused to accept, Chastain said. He claimed that because many of the policies the current administration campaigned for in last year's election take months in the making and will benefit IU years from now, its work goes unnoticed.\nVice President of Operations Scott Norman said though IUSA wants to make important changes, students must remember that it takes time.\n"There are a lot of issues that are in the benefit of IU in the long term," Norman said. "You know in the short term you are not going to see the benefit. It is really hard for us to know we are making a decision that won't affect students now." \nThe current administration, which ran on the Crimson ticket has created an ISBN database for students. The ISBN is a unique number, which identifies author, title, edition and other information. The IUSA administration hopes the database will make it easier for students to find cheaper deals on textbooks. The proposed Web site was part of Crimson's election platform, which included six main areas of concentration: academics and education; alcohol; book costs; the academic calendar; and IU transportation. Safety transportation, the sixth item on the original platform, included proposed "dollar cabs," which were also successfully lobbied for by IUSA executives. Chastain said the cabs should be available before his term ends in April.\nDespite its many ideas, the current administration has run into a few brick walls. A petition for a fall break has been proposed, but research departments and other areas of IU administration oppose the idea of interrupting work, Chastain said. \nAs for IU transportation, IUSA has reached a brick wall with the University and the state. Crimson promised last year to create universal busing for students, who pay a $30 transportation fee each academic year. The IUSA executives were faced with a decision: either lose bus services -- namely from the Stadium Express line -- or implement a fee that allows students to continue to ride the Bloomington Transit, Stadium Express and Midnight Shuttle by showing their student ID. The $50 fee has been approved by the IUSA Congress and recently was rejected by the Graduate Professional Student Association. The fee must then go through the Student Fee Review Board. If the Review Board approves the fee, the board of trustees will have the final vote to determine whether to implement the vote.\nThe Crimson executives and board of directors pursued other ideas outside of their platform, such as working with Bloomington to compile an online off-campus housing resource. The proposed site was delayed because of IUSA committee members' busy schedules, said Jesse Laffen, vice president of administration.\n"Some people assigned to it got busy with other things," Laffen said. "That's one of those things where we definitely made the effort. I think that could be something we'll see later."\nMany of Crimson's ideas had been up in the air for years, Nolan said. By addressing them, at least they were back on the agenda, he said.\nSome candidates for this year's elections, which will be held from Feb. 22 to 23, have already begun to focus on specific policies they would like to work on. \n"When (tickets) deal with specifics, (students) can hold them accountable," Chastain said, adding that the elections are the one time all the tickets are face-to-face with student concerns. \nThe annual election debate will be the chance for the five parties to address pertinent campus issues. It is scheduled for next week, said Derek Molter, IUSA's election coordinator.\nMolter is a member of the six-person election commission that decided the fate of last year's election scandal, in which executives from the Big Red ticket were expelled from the process after failing to disclose campaign expenditures. Big Red won the popular vote, but a unanimous decision by the election commission and Student Body Supreme Court removed it from office and named runner-up Crimson as new IUSA executives. \nMolter said he does not doubt that one of this year's tickets will win the required 40-percent majority. If there is no majority, the winning ticket must have 20 percent more than the runner-up. If no ticket gets that, a run-off will take place.\nRun-offs usually occur when tickets go after the same constituency and the vote is split evenly. To avoid this, tickets should come up with different tactics than used the year before, Molter said. \n"I always think it is exciting each year," he said. "Everyone gets more and more creative. (At least) if they want to win, they do."\nWhile IUSA executives will not give their support to a specific ticket, Laffen remains confident in this year's candidates, many of whom have worked with Crimson during this term.\n"There are a few tickets whose leaders would do a great job," he said. "I'm very pleased with this election. Hopefully a lot of good things will come of this."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Colleen Corley at ccorley@indiana.edu.