IDS Editorial Board: Unite behind the iUnity ticket

Many of the same people running this year on the iUnity for IUSA ticket are from the current B-town administration. Despite some moderate residual problems with transparency and budgetary issues this year, this current administration has made leaps and bounds over previous IUSA administrations in terms of accountability and the progress they’ve actually made this year.

iUnity has a proven track record of accomplishments and the experience necessary to lead IUSA next year. 

The current administration has been key in making transportation across campus more convenient for students. 

iUnity’s members have been instrumental in securing IU’s partnership with Zipcar (and without paying a penny of students’ money to get it done).

Additionally, the current administration has plans in the works that would bring an internationally renowned bike rental company to campus by next year, which would allow students to rent a bike at one station on campus, ride the bike to their classes or meetings across campus, and return the bike there for a small fee. The program has been highly successful and popular in cities like Montreal, Paris and Shanghai.

The administration is also well on its way to bringing a successful and innovative carpooling program called Zimride to IU this summer. Zimride allows students to get acquainted with the people with whom they’d be riding beforehand and to rate their experiences with particular drivers and riding companions after taking a trip with them. This program would eliminate the need for the ride boards posted in dorms across campus and make it easier to get home on the weekends.

Another innovative and cost-effective idea it is already implementing is a system of GPS tracking devices on campus buses that would send a signal to each bus stop where a digital clock would be displayed indicating how long it will be until the next bus arrives. Many campuses have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on similar projects, but this team has found a way to do it for a fraction of that cost. 

The most important progress the current administration has made is with respect to fall break.

For several years, getting IU to have a fall break has been a major piece of most IUSA campaign platforms, and the members of this administration have come the closest that anyone has ever to making it happen. Before the end of this year, there will be a vote in the Bloomington Faculty Council over whether we should have one, and its prospects for passage look good, thanks in no small part to the hard and persistent work of members of iUnity.

iUnity’s team overlaps significantly with the current B-town administration, and because of this, many of these projects are already in the process of being implemented. Changing leadership in the middle of the implementation of these ideas would unnecessarily put many of these projects at risk of being abandoned or derailed.

iUnity has shown it knows how to do its job effectively as vocal advocates for student interests at the campus level because they’ve already done it. There’s no need to change teams in the middle of a game, especially not if the current team is already well on its way to winning.