Opinion: A time to come together: Arbaugh for President
Nick Arbaugh is running for president (Submitted photo)
By Nick Arbaugh, Columnist
The investigations, hearings, and overall happenings that beleaguered our student government through the last few weeks are over. We as a student body have elected leaders, seen those leaders removed, and watched as next year’s student government was thrown into confusion. As of now, following the hearings last Monday, next year’s Senate is without a president. The student body is without a president, without a direction, and without any clear path forward.
Having been elected as your treasurer for the upcoming 2018-2019 term, I’ve closely witnessed all of this. All of the hurt and confusion on behalf of students as we struggle as a community to come to terms with the situation has played out in front of me. I know that I speak for my colleagues and peers when I say it is past time we righted the ship.
I am running for the presidency for the 2018-2019 term. Together with my colleagues in the Senate and my student peers, I’ve seen that the situation before us demands strong and stable leadership. It requires proficiency, the kind of which can only be produced through the experience of having served as a senator for two years and sat on the Budget Management, Policy, and Opinions Committees. It requires forward-thinking leadership, the kind that has produced multiple amendments to the constitution in the current year and that has worked to forge new compromises between the Senate and clubs that deliver greater benefits to the student body as a whole. Lastly, and most importantly, the role of President requires audacity. We need a President who is unabashed in their defense of student rights to freedom of expression and to live in a mold-free environment. We need one who is willing to speak truth to power when the need arises.
Our washing machines are broken. Our vending machines are empty. We lack filters on water fountains and our housing is often decrepit. We’ve broken down, and students both need and deserve better. It is time to build up, to mend, and to emerge from this awful crisis stronger than ever. To do that we need a president with broad-based support who is capable of reunifying student government into the activist body it should be. If elected, I will work each day and with every fiber of my being to be that healer, that advocate, and that president for you.
