MSA Elections Quietly Arrive

by Justin Wilson

Where have all the posters gone? Isn’t it election season?”

Don’t worry, you’re not going insane or blind; it is Michigan Student Assembly’s (MSA) election season, but due to new restrictions limiting campaign advertisements, this time it has snuck up on everyone.

Despite its quiet arrival, MSA elections will occur on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. The election will fill 23 empty MSA seats. Along with the incumbent Blue Party (BP) and Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP), the FRAT Party and many new independents have joined the race to become the next set of U-M’s bureaucrats-in-training.

This year the parties participating have little in common, even disagreeing as to the fundamental purpose of the student government. Some believe that MSA, as a whole, should be a forum for social action. Others see it solely as a means to improve student life on campus. Accordingly, each party and candidate emphasizes different issues they would like to address:

Blue Party

Although the Blue Party (BP) has only one incumbent candidate running on its ticket, every BP candidate is exceptionally qualified, according to BP co-chairperson Marisa Linn.

Linn states that the party realizes that much of what MSA does is symbolic and has no real impact on campus. As such, the BP’s platform centers on a plethora of specific policies to improve student life. The platform includes lobbying for increasing funding from the state for the university, stabilizing and ensuring the expansion of Entree Plus across campus, and improving health services on campus. Thus, “the Blue Party exists to accomplish projects that will work for the students and have an impact on campus life,” Linn remarks

 More state funding is one issue the BP hopes to focus on. “The U of M is severely under-funded by the state” and deserves more funding as the flagship school of Michigan, said Linn. The BP plans to lobby not only in MSA, but also in the State legislature for more funding. Linn believes that this proposal holds more promise than DAAP’s recent resolution to freeze tuition. Linn, who voted against the DAAP resolution, said that it was “weak in terms of an action statement, and offered no way of getting things done. [The Blue party] will lobby the state for more funding — that is the most realistic means of accomplishing the lowest tuition possible.”

The BP also has plans to strengthen and secure the expansion of Entree Plus as a payment method across campus. For example, some claim that under Michigan’s strict banking laws, the University serves as a bank by hosting entree accounts. In order to solve this problem, the BP hopes to work with both the University’s general counsel and the State Attorney General to “secure a final ruling from the State Banking Committee to determine [Entree Plus] legality.” Additionally, the Blue Party wishes to extend the coverage of Entree Plus. “Students have found it to be very convenient,” and the BP will take a vested interest in not only keeping the program in existence but expanding it, said Linn.

Besides working on the state level, the BP also hopes to improve health care on campus. Blue’s platform “includes creating information centers in residence halls with pamphlets on various disorders and offering condoms and safe sex information.” Specifically, the BP wants each residence hall to have a staffed area to answer questions and distribute information pertaining to health issues. Linn commented that the center would hopefully be staffed by a public heath graduate student and would stay open past UHS hours.

Defend Affirmative Action Party

After its first year of MSA representation, the Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP) has certainly made itself known. With Jessica Curtin chairing the party, members have proposed numerous ideological resolutions regarding affirmative action and other activist-minded causes this year, such as last semester’s resolution to lift Iraqi sanctions.

As the name implies, the central goal of the DAAP is to defend affirmative action. According to party propaganda, DAAP is “bound up with building the new civil rights movement, starting with the defense of affirmative action and integration.” The party cites statistics that show that higher education is resegregating and that the concept of “separate but equal” is being adopted across the country. DAAP believes that “only the power of the new social movement can reverse the [attacks on affirmative action]. DAAP aims at building that movement.

“For [DAAP], being a force on the assembly that represents and fights for all students’ rights and interests is not counterpoised to the fact that we also specifically represent minority and progressive students.” (Emphasis in original.) DAAP, the fighting party on campus, has consistently clashed with the majority of MSA and lost. Additionally, the party specifically indicates that it stands up for minorities and is proud that it is a totally integrated party with a majority of its candidates women.

Besides defending affirmative action, DAAP has a few other interesting platform issues. Recently, DAAP members proposed a tuition freeze, pointing out that the average school tuition in the U.S. has risen much higher than the inflation rate. DAAP sponsored the resolution in order to “maintain access to college education for students who are not from wealthy backgrounds.”

DAAP also hopes to increase equality on campus, besides affirmative action based admissions. Its platform takes issue with the supposedly discriminatory policies of the Michigan Union and Department of Public Safety (DPS). DAAP claims that the Union misallocates rooms in a method biased against black student groups, and believes that DPS unfairly targets minorities. Although they plan to “end these injustices,” they propose no means of doing so in their literature. Jessica Curtin and the other DAAP candidates refused to comment, exclaiming, “We don’t talk to the Review. ... You’re racist, sexist, and anti-gay.”

But it is important to note that “a new student movement!” is oftentimes the only solution DAAP proposes. Although DAAP had identified many important issues on campus, party literature offers no concrete solutions to these issues.

FRAT Party

Being a newcomer to an MSA election is not an easy thing, but the Friends Rebelling Against Tyranny Party (FRAT) has embraced the challenge whole heatedly. FRAT is led by a rogue named Galaxor Nebulon, who will appear on the ballot as Ryan Hughes until he officially changes his name. Galaxor and the rest of the staff from U-M’s official humor magazine, The Gargoyle, decided that some things needed to be done on campus, and they were the people to do them.

FRAT Party member Dave Guipe (Arts Editor of the Review) indicated that rumors abound about the new group. “For instance, some DAAP member thought that we were some kind of a crazy right-wing group.” Guipe was quick to point out that these rumors are not true and that the FRAT party doesn’t fall within the traditional political spectrum. Instead, FRAT has chosen some very specific issues to address.

FRAT literature indicates that members are “strongly opposed to tyranny, in all its forms. To that end, we will toil ceaselessly to see that these dreams become realized: Coke in the drinking fountains, two hour recess, Pizza for lunch every day, two-hour lunch, and no more homework.”

FRAT has also stated a number of policy proposals they promise to accomplish if elected. Among them include such useful resolutions as “carving the words ‘OSU sucks’ onto the moon, so that everyone all over the world will know what big pansy wusses they are.”

FRAT also wants to abolish the Code of Student Conduce and replace it with the Morse code of Student Conduct. “[FRAT] WILL change the name of the ‘Michigan Student Assembly’ (MSA) to ‘Brothers and Sisters Thinking About Real Democracy’ (BASTARD),” states FRAT literature.

Finally, the FRAT Party will strive to “provide students with least three free condoms per day, free of charge.”

“[FRAT] wants students all across the campus — nay — all across the world, to think of the FRAT party as the party of change; the party of the future; the party of hope; the party of the people; that party FOR the people; the party BY the people.”

Independents

With the sudden absence of the Students’ Party and other incumbents in this election (see sidebar, page 6), it is very likely that independent candidates will play a larger role in the election. As Linn notes, political parties on campus are more a means of organizing candidates than representing a very specific agenda. Thus, independents often play a large role both in elections, and on the Assembly. This year will not be different, despite the lack of some old faces.

Alefiyah Mesiwala

Mesiwala advocates issues such as “supporting a tuition freeze, informing the student body where exactly our tuition money goes towards, increasing the standard of dorm food, expanding dining hours in dorms, implementing more community service projects, getting more printers for the Fishbowl, bettering the workout facilities, and giving the students a short mid-term vacation during the period of September through November.”

He also has a notable solution to the mandatory student fee problem MSA faces: “Students should be given the option to specify where their money should go,” said Mesiwala. His proposal also mandates that each “organization would still receive an annual fixed income.”

Robert Rosenberg

Although he has not been involved in MSA or any of its committees, Rosenberg feels he has some fresh new ideas to bring to MSA. He wants to fulfill the “need to incorporated a program for students with disabilities in to the University of Michigan. ... The program needs to be made more available to students, especially at the freshman level.” He would also like to see the LSA language requirement reworked so that one can fulfill the requirement without taking any language courses for a grade. (Currently, students cannot take the fourth semester of their language requirement Pass/Fail.)

Zach Slates

Zach Slates is a freshman incumbent candidate who was just recently appointed to MSA. He is quick to point out that several factors set him apart from the other candidates. For instance, he currently lives in a residence hall, unlike many of his upperclassmen opponents.

If elected, Slates wants continue to serve on the Voice Your Vote Committee, which is currently working to host a forum on Gun Control on campus. In addition, he hopes to expand the hours that the Central Campus Recreational Building is open, believing that many students would like to use the facilities later than current hours allow. He also wants to expand the Entree Plus program and work to get unused meal credits to carry over to the next week.

In reference to the mandatory student fee, Slates feels that “the student fee is important: it allows many incredible groups to function. I, however, do not feel that it needs to be increased this year. If the [Supreme] Court sides with Southworth, I feel that MSA should work to establish an endowment to fund student groups.”

Josh Trapani

With four years of experience on MSA, Josh Trapani sets a high bar for the other MSA independent candidates. Working on his Ph.D. and serving as the Student General Counsel, Trapani brings a lot of experience with him.

Trapani’s focus is his constituents in the Racham Graduate school. “As a member of RSG, MSA, and, starting soon, SACUA, I have been able to serve my constituency effectively by promoting communication between these groups. ... I think everyone would agree that my presence on both has been mutually beneficial.”

Trapani, along with other MSA representatives, has been working on a rewrite of the MSA Compiled Code for months. He hopes to continue revisions, eventually completing the new Code by mid-winter. In its current form, he said, the Code is “cumbersome and long-to-the-point-of-almost-being-obsolete.”

Finally, Trapani hopes to continue his work in lobbying for a restructuring of the University’s Code of Student Conduct. “Student rights are extremely important to me.”

Other independent candidates have a range of platform points. Some candidates are running as incumbents, and some are completely new to MSA. Most are actively campaigning to get their voice heard, while others, like Patrick Kostun, have dropped out of the election.

Kostun explained: “I have decided not to actively pursue a position on MSA, as my conservative views would not get me elected.