Get Red-Hot next week

With student government elections coming up March 31 and April 1, you’re probably growing tired of going out of your way to avoid those of us in red shirts handing out fliers.

We can’t say we blame you, but we do ask you to consider voting Red-Hot for IUSA next week. 

When building the Red-Hot ticket, we recruited student leaders with diverse campus leadership experience, and we’re privileged to be working with students from over 50 groups and 25 greek houses. 

What further sets us apart is our collective experience running large campus organizations and working with campus administrators. Red-Hot members have been presidents of greek houses, directors of Union Board, leaders of campus groups such as IU Dance Marathon and the Kelley Diversity Council and presidents of residence halls.

I have been fortunate enough to serve as one of four IUSA executives this year, actively helping to organize the current IUSA administration and leading work on initiatives like the Sales Tax Holiday legislation that was recently introduced in the Indiana General Assembly.

In constructing our platform, we focused on hearing from students and considering our own IU experiences. Our priorities include:

1. Obtaining $1 million for the campus bus system from Indiana transportation funds, which we are not currently receiving because the IU administration hasn’t applied for them. The reasons for this are largely political, but there’s a way forward, thanks to work by the Student Transportation Board. We’re committed to guiding the process of securing these funds, which would improve service and reduce potential fee increases due to rising gas prices.

2. Instituting a “Virtual Student Union.” We envision a central Web site that would be a place for student groups to interact, for students to find out what’s happening on campus and a go-to site for students to find important information.

3. Pushing for campus sustainability and common-sense sustainable solutions. We’ll make sure IU administrators know that students think campus sustainability is the way of the future. We could also be doing some common sense things now to reduce our environmental impact: consistent color-coding for building recycling bins, more recycling bins outside, turning off half the lights in unused buildings overnight, etc.

4. Addressing space issues at the SRSC and HPER. This is something that we can’t complete in a year, but it’s something students have told us they would like to have addressed. Short-term solutions include evaluating how to best use the space we have and adding more machines to the perimeters of rooms. Long-term solutions include further work with students to determine the feasibility of funding expansion projects.

We also recognize that we don’t know everything, so we want to hear from you about your IU experience. Our personal e-mail addresses are on our Web site, RedHotIU.com.

If we’re elected, we’ll continue to be accessible by doing things like publishing a weekly Executive Blog, holding open office hours and putting the IUSA budget online.  
We look forward to hearing from you if you have any questions or want to get involved, and we appreciate the opportunity to earn your vote.