Times are changing at the University of Central Florida.
For the first time we can remember, the Central Florida Future has decided not to endorse a candidate for UCF’s Student Government Association presidential election. And for the first time, KnightNews.com will be the only media source for students — who aren’t able to research the candidates and issues on their own time — to rely on to endorse a candidate it thinks would be best for the student body, after thoroughly looking at both sides.
We wish we didn’t have to endorse, either. We wish students could have all the information at their fingertips to decide exactly which candidate is best for them. We wish we didn’t have to ask tough questions, or dig up major changes to tailgating policies that affect your lives. We wish we could make funny music videos about El Corral all day long and just make you laugh — but we can’t.
We owe it to you, our visitors, and all UCF students, to endorse a candidate in this presidential race. In fact, one of the biggest reasons we have to endorse a ticket this year, is because we hope we won’t have to next time around.
KnightNews.com fully endorses Daniel Seeff and Kevin Wolkenfeld for your next SGA President and Vice President, because if they win, they promise to “totally transform” how SGA works by making it “totally transparent.” They promise to stream live video of important SGA meetings, and keep archives online so you can see what happened. They also promise to post all the financial documents online.
We think that’s exactly what SGA needs. We believe if that starts happening, students can finally have the option of doing their own research — and students can always watch what their leaders are doing and hold them accountable if they break a promise.
The Seeff/Wolkenfeld campaign announced by video that SGA met over Winter Break, when students had already left town, to decide how almost all of the $14 million student activity and service fee budget would be spent — over a catered buffet lunch, bought with student money, in an empty student union.
Seeff/Wolkenfeld Campaign Video:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udi1W7iqgdw
Truth be told, this happens every year. The small group of SGA’s most powerful members attend, including SGA Presidential candidate Mike Kilbride. They work long hours over break to smash out this huge budget, after talking to other powerful insiders in CAB, OSI and other agencies. Kilbride, and most others in SGA, probably don’t see anything wrong with this meeting — and that’s part of the problem.
The small group of SGA’s top leaders and insiders running the show now — many of whom endorsed Kilbride before even hearing what the other side had to say — seems so comfortable with the status quo, so comfortable making decisions for you, that they appear to just assume to know what’s best for you without bothering to ask or include you.
Why do we feel this way? Because we put in a public records request for surveys, questionnaires, e-mails and anything else SGA’s leadership has done to determine student opinion before talking to administrators about tailgating policies changes — and SGA hasn’t been able to produce anything proving they sought student opinion.
UCF, that’s what Daniel Seeff and Kevin Wolkenfeld are promising to do for you, by sharing everything they know, when they know it, and asking your opinion. And, even if you disagree with them, at least you’ll be able to watch their every move on video, and hold them accountable if they don’t represent the student.
As far as Mike Kilbride, and the SGA insiders he touts as his endorsing team, good luck getting information out of the SGA they control.
KnightNews.com has been trying to get financial documents showing how SGA allocated the reported nearly $14 million over winter break, but when we stopped into the Activity and Service Fee office Wednesday to try and pick them up, we were told our request was sent to UCF’s team of lawyers to see if we are entitled to it — and to see how much of a cost they will charge us to get it for you.
The office told us we shouldn’t expect a decision for another week — after the elections are over.
If KnightNews.com can’t get the public information about where your money is going before this election, how can a regular student be expected to get the information needed to make an informed decision?
If they stick to their guns, and these records aren’t released soon, the election will be over before we know
the following:
– How much of that reported $14 million pie might those leaders endorsing Kilbride possibly have been allocated for their organizations while you were home for break?
– How much money is allocated to the executive branch next year, versus the student senate which has the ability spend it directly on student organizations?
– Whether anything was said on audio recordings while these winter meetings carried out that could influence how you vote.
Whether you’re Greek or Progressive, Republican or Democrat, freshman or doctoral students — you only have one candidate who promises to put this secrecy to an end.
And, if you don’t like the job they do next year, at least you’ll be in the position to know everything they do, so you can run and do a better job — without a group of insiders telling you you’re not ready, you’re not good enough, you don’t know enough, and you can’t get the job done.
If Mike Kilbride wins, we’re sure things will run just as smoothly as they do now — he is, after all, one of the few with access to the knowledge and information to keep things the way they are. But if he wins, don’t be surprised if your tailgating time gets cut by another two hours next year, and you don’t hear about it until you read about it in the Orlando Sentinel, Central Florida Future or KnightNews.com.
Daniel and Kevin have promised to transform SGA and open it up so every student will know everything that’s going on, and that total transformation of SGA is why KnightNews.com fully endorses them as your next student body president and vice president.
