Associated Student Government’s next executive vice president faces a difficult question from voters: Why should the student body care who holds your job?
Thanks to a constitutional amendment passed in January, the position no longer oversees groups funded by student money. The job now deals primarily with B- and T-status groups, which do not receive ASG funding.
Nevertheless, The Daily endorses Sadiya Farooqui, with reservations, for executive vice president. Farooqui is knowledgeable and experienced. Her proposal for a grant program for B-status groups is a step in the right direction and could gain her some authority over students funds.
Nicole Mash and Ben Cherry bring interesting ideas to the election, but neither is ready to take on the position’s new challenges. Mash’s platform touches several important topics and makes her a worthy runner-up. But Mash does not have a clear plan for adapting her position to its new role. And Cherry shows zero interest in making the reforms that the job clearly needs.
Even as we endorse Farooqui, we worry that with the position of executive vice president stripped of its most important power, her effectiveness will depend on her ability to reinvent her position.
Such a tenuous future for the executive vice president is most alarming now because it comes on the heels of the canceled Snoop Dogg concert, and just two months shy of another Mayfest “concert.” What can voters do to make sure this year’s student-funded Dillo Day doesn’t go bust like last year? Not enough.
We hope that Farooqui will be able to eke out a role that will make her effective and relevant to the campus.
Her tenure could make or break her position.