SLATE GUIDE AND OFFICIAL PLATFORM

Washington University Student Union Exec Elections 2014

ELEVATE is

Emma Tyler President, Arts + Sciences ‘15Nick Palermo Vice President of Finance, Business ‘15

Vivek Biswas Vice President of Administration, Engineering / Arts + Sciences ‘15Brian Benton Vice President of Public Relations, Arts + Sciences ‘16

Laura Roettges Vice President of Programming, Visual Arts / Arts + Sciences ‘16

INTRODUCTION

Hi. Nice to meet you!This proposal is to present the Washington University

community with our potential vision for the 2014-2015 Executive Board of Student Union (SU). This outline of our mission and goals for SU is only the beginning of a discussion of how to allow SU to better serve students.

SU has three primary functions: advocate, allocate, and program. SU is responsible for allocating of the student activities fee, advocating for the needs and interest of students in all aspects of campus life, and creating innovative programming for all undergraduates. SU Exec is responsible for putting forth a specific vision for the organization in a particular year, and responding to the needs of the campus community.

Our overall goals are to elevate SU’s accessibility, engagement, and transparency to all Washington University communities and students. Throughout this proposal, we hope to represent on how the student body and SU can work together to create change and a more

accessible, engaging and transparent campus community. Each of our slate members has taken on one objective that they would concentrate on throughout their term to help accomplish these three goals.

We created this platform by collecting a variety of student opinion and reflecting on our own experiences on campus. We hope to make SU more accessible to both student groups and individual students by increasing SU’s presence on campus and in campus decision making, increase student engagement in both SU and campus as a whole through programming and communication and creating more transparency in SU by increasing public participation, access to information and recruitment and retention.

Through accessibility, engagement and transparency, SU can have an increased presence in the lives of students allowing it to provide more effective services to students, student groups and the entire student body.

Emma Tyler, President

Collaboration as the path to better on-campus lifeAccessibility

• Develop a “Complaints” website to allow students to submit grievances about all aspects of student life for Student Union to more effectively work with administrators.

• Create an Individual Resolutions system that allows individual students to bring issues that matter to them to the attention of Senate, as well as the University administration.

Engagement• Host bi-semesterly Open Town Hall Meetings

and forums with administrators to discuss issues on campus for students to provide the campus community with feedback and facilitate conversation between students and administrators

• Create student positions on major campus issue-based and decision-making committees to allow

student voice to be present as much as possible in the administration.

• Concentrate advocacy efforts on campus issues students are passionate about:

- Work with ResLife to bring gender-inclusive housing to the South 40.

- Liaise with Campus Life on adding to gender-neutral bathrooms across campus.

- Create a socioeconomic diversity task force with Administrative backing.

- Obtain details on the Center for Diversity and Inclusion from Advisory Committee and continue to encourage student involvement.

- Promote the need for comprehensive free mental health services and the hiring of a mental health coordinator.

OUR PLATFORM

OUR PLATFORM

- Support student groups and administrators in providing additional training on sexual assault after orientation, have all of SU go through C.O.R.E. and SafeZones trainings.

• Strive to make SU advocacy a proactive, not reactive, force on campus that students utilize to voice concerns and trust to represent their best interests.

Transparency• Publish SU semesterly report for students

to see what SU projects are in progress, have been accomplished, what money has been spent and to hold student leaders accountable.

• Establish a more direct engagement effort by reaching out to students to come to Student Union meetings and events that interest them in order to gather a wider array of opinions.

Nick Palermo, VP of Finance

Increased public participation in decision-making

Accessibility• Revamp How Things Work, the guide to SU finances,

to be more user-friendly by using concise language and graphics to convey the role of a student group Treasurer.

• Develop a Presidents’ and Treasurers’ Training that serves students first by using outreach to create resources and trainings around student group needs and wants.

• Create a training for student groups on how to present at Treasury.

• Negotiate a sustainable contract with ResLife returning free usage of South 40 premium spaces (Ursa’s, South 40 Dance Studio, etc.) to student groups.

OUR PLATFORM

Engagement• Use Carry-Forward to create long-term capital

improvement and advocacy fund for students to access, and commit SU funds to improve DAC, GEC and Engage 360 functions to provide access to SU capital for a breadth of campus issues.

• Invite group leaders to office hours to hear concerns regarding SU finances and funding decisions.

• Work actively with VP Public Relations to publicize Treasury decisions on SU website and all-school emails.

Transparency • Engage consistently with groups funded by the General

Budget in order to allocate so as to reflect student sentiment and address concerns through individual outreach and town-hall forums.

• Provide post-allocation Budget Committee interviews to explain to group leaders rationale behind funding decisions.

OUR PLATFORM

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Vivek Biswas, VP of Administration

Internal SU improvements to allow internal SU organization to be more accessible to those outside of SUAccessibility

• Revamp the SU Website to be an effective resource for students.

- Sell tickets and products for student groups in conjunction with program calendar to encourage use and publicity.

- Create a blog for co-programming and group collaboration.

- Provide a list of “ways student groups can get involved” or collaborate on other campus projects---making every student group aware of their opportunities

Engagement • Transform the Election Commission from

a judicial body into a resource for students running for office, providing informational campaign sessions, design resources and platform feedback from previous SU representatives.

• Eliminate the slate system to encourage individuals who may not otherwise run for positions to become involved in SU.

• Revitalize the recruitment and retention committee to encourage student involvement

OUR PLATFORM

from a more diverse range of groups across campus.

• Conduct exit interviews with departing SU representatives to compile and act on their recommendations.

• Continue exploring possibilities to reorganize treasury to allow a diverse array of opinions to be present.

Transparency• Work with the SU President to develop

cohesive legislative action plans and priorities and coordinate these plans with students through a ‘State of SU’ Address.

• Publish the minutes and subjects of all SU meetings.

• Institute a yearly constitutional review with Senate and Treasury to hold SU leaders accountable.

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OUR PLATFORM

Accessibility• Revamp the SU Public Relations Committee

to provide free PR services, such as design and marketing tools, for all groups planning events.

• Design media such as videos and infographics to more easily transmit information about SU to student groups and the campus at large.

- Guides to joining SU or submitting an appeal to treasury, as well as graphics relating to major SU actions shared via social media and SU’s website.

- Introductions to major players in SU so students feel more comfortable contacting them.

Engagement• Work with the VP of Admin in creating Recruitment

& Retention committee and publicize open seats and SU events across campus.

• Publicize SU Elections by reaching out to groups who are underrepresented in SU.

• Evaluate ways to make the all-school email more effective, such as sending it at a different time or introducing prize giveaways for readers.

Transparency • Increase SU social media to encourage student

dialogue and engagement with SU decisions and programming.

• Modernize and reintroduce the SU brand to campus in order to strengthen student’s understanding of SU and encourage involvement.

Brian Benton, VP of Public Relations

Reformed SU presence on campus and increased service to student groups

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OUR PLATFORM

“I am voting for Elevate! because they’re committed to building the SU brand and providing creative resources for student groups.”

- Andy Koh, senior and founder of WashUFaces.com

“Having worked with members of Elevate! in the past, I can attest to their immense leadership. They are the slate that will bring Student Union to the next level and finally make SU about the students.”

- Jordan Finkelstein, sophomore and current president of SPB

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OUR PLATFORM

Accessibility• Form an SU “Programming Institute”

to aid in providing resources to groups, share best practices, and publicize all available SU entities that could add value to events

• Actively engage with CS40, the First Year Center, and other organizations to develop a campus-wide programming calendar to avoid over-programming and best share spaces

Engagement • Work to restructure Class Councils

to reflect SU Exec with a President, VP Finance, VP Administration, VP Programming, and VP Public Relations to encourage individuals with different qualifications to run.

Laura Roettges, VP of Programming

Creating effective, organized co-programming

• Support Architecture School Council and Olin Business Council in the revamping and continuation of Bauhaus and Olinpalooza by assisting in co-programming, providing resources and aiding in appeals process for both events.

• Define a structure for ArtSci Council and recruit potential new leadership.

Transparency • Develop a campus survey on all

major event talent including Social Programming Board and speaker series.

• Work with First Year Center to develop a Bear Beginnings program focusing on living in and among the St. Louis community to better connect incoming freshmen to their surroundings beyond campus.

EMMA TYLER PresidentEmma is a junior from New Orleans, majoring in Political Science and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She recently served as the first president of SPB and oversaw a ten member exec board, a $500,000 budget and the transition to a new executive board structure. Previously, Emma was the Class of 2015 Freshman and Sophomore Class President, the Engage 360 Campus Outreach Chair, and a WUSA for Dardick 3. She is also a founding member of Kappa Delta at WashU and an Enterprise Holdings Scholar. Emma hopes to reform SU into a more proactive advocacy organization that provides resources for student’s passions while also actively pursuing more efficient methods of allocation and programming.

OUR SLATE

We chose the name Elevate! because our mission is to raise Student Union’s presence on campus to allow for it to more effectively advocate based student needs, allocate based on student wants, and program based on student interests. Our slate has a diverse range of backgrounds and campus experiences inside and outside of SU that we believe will benefit us in serving the student body.

NICK PALERMO Vice President of FinanceNick is a junior from Pasadena, CA majoring in Finance with minors in Accounting and Japanese. He is the current VP of Finance for SU, and was previously the Budget Committee Chair for two semesters and a four-semester Treasury Representative. Nick has also served on executive boards of Beta Theta Pi and Delta Sigma Pi. Nick recently unanimously passed the $2.7 million General Budget and a $250,000 Carry-Forward spending plan. He is now looking to implement new ways of utilizing Carry-Forward money to develop student accessible funds such as a long-term capital improvement and advocacy fund, make finances more accessible to student groups by changing Budget Committee decision releases and provide support to groups presenting before Treasury.

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OUR SLATE

LAURA ROETTGES Vice President of ProgrammingLaura is a sophomore from Ponte Vedra, FL studying Mathematics and Comparative Arts with a minor in Studio Arts. This year, as the External Vice President of Sophomore Class Council, she co-ordinated large-scale campus events such as a sophomore-class ski trip, ice-skating night and co-pro-gramming for Halloweekend. Laura is also the current treasurer of Alpha Rho Chi, the newly estab-lished Professional Fraternity for Architecture and the Allied Arts. On SU Exec, Laura hopes to foster co-programming between groups, improve the quality of student group programming by establishing a better training system, and work to restructure class councils to promote effective representation of each grade on campus.

BRIAN BENTON Vice President of Public RelationsBrian is a sophomore from Palo Alto, CA majoring in American Culture Studies with minors in Writing and Art History. He is the current Creative Director of Kuumba.tv and previously served as SPB’s first Comedy Director, overseeing both the Demetri Martin and Nick Offerman comedy shows.Brian led the redesign of the SPB website and the creation of all marketing videos, and has also done design, photo and video work for a long list of groups on campus, including Student Involvement and Leadership, Student Life, Sophomore Class Council, Ashoka and Olin Business Council. On SU, Brian would use his marketing and public relations experience to bring a new image to Student Union and re-introduce the SU PR Committee to provide advice and assistance to SU groups.

VIVEK BISWAS Vice President of AdministrationVivek is a junior from St. Louis majoring in Chemical Engineering and Political Science. As the current Speaker of the SU Senate, he has led discussions and resolutions on gender neutral housing, divestment and socioeconomic diversity, and also worked to create the DUC and library charger rental program and introduce displays of power usage on residential area monitors. He is the current VP of External Business for ThurtenE and previously served as the University Initiatives Committee Chair and on the Student Technology Advisory Committee, Bear Bucks Advisory Committee, and Assembly Series Committee. Vivek hopes to improve SU recruitment and retention, revamp the SU website, create a system of individual candidacy, and better use the Election Commission.

CONTRIBUTORS

Taylor Docking, Class of 2014Jake Lichtenfeld, Class of 2014

Michael Land, Class of 2015Maya Walton, Class of 2015

Senit Kidane, Class of 2016Bonner Williams, Class of 2016

Reid Petty, Class of 2017Sharpay Zhang, Class of 2017

Thank you to our Platform Contributors!

Learn more at voteelevate.com.

voteelevate@gmail.com

Emma Tyler: e.tyler@wustl.eduNick Palermo: n.palermo@wustl.edu

Vivek Biswas: vbiswas@wustl.eduBrian Benton: brianbenton@wustl.edu

Laura Roettges: lroettges@wustl.edu

Learn more at voteelevate.com.

All photos by Brian Benton and Max Campbell