Editor’s Note — This article was supposed to run last week before the elections were held. We apologize for the delay.So here we are. At the dawn of a new trimester. There has not been a big event yet but in the next few days we will have the opportunity to cast our votes for the new LUCC president. What should we base our decisions on? I’ll tell you what I think.
Firstly, the candidates need to be organized. Pete Snyder told me that a large part of his job is management. We need a president who will be able to move meetings along and keep in touch with many different people. Desire won’t transform into tangible change without organization.
Secondly, the new president should have passion. Let’s not try to elect the person that we think will be the best at parliamentary procedure. The LUCC president does not have a vote unless a tie needs to be broken so we shouldn’t just be voting for the person with the stances we agree with. We should look for someone who can get the members of LUCC more excited about what they are doing.
I’ve only been to one LUCC meeting before. Many members from the Lawrence community and I were there to help bring about the passing of the LUCC resolution concerning the trustees. Before that came up on the agenda I was really bored. It could be because I didn’t really know what was going on but there were other reasons the meeting seemed dull. Few people had anything to say, few people spoke with much emotion in their voices, and almost everybody voted one way or another …
When the trustee legislation came up almost every representative wanted to speak and they spoke with enthusiasm. People went back and forth on their stances and you could tell they really cared about being on the right side. Many of the people with me had something to say on the issue and clearly swayed the beliefs of many representatives. It was so exciting that my hands were shaking.
Of course, some issues are more exciting than others, but it would be nice if the new LUCC president was able to inject some life into these meetings in general. The ability to get people worked up should be secondary to organization, though, because anyone can bring exciting issues to the floor of LUCC. In that case, the president, Pete Snyder, proposed the resolution that riled everybody up but anybody, even someone outside of the LUCC council, could have proposed it.
It would be great if the new president is very passionate but it is not necessary for an interesting council. All the candidates who don’t become president have the power ****-**** I would argue almost the same amount as the president *****-***** to bring their thoughts and excitement to LUCC meetings and I hope that they do. I think that it would be a mistake to think that we can’t do anything unless we have a title. Anyone can come to a LUCC meeting and bring up new issues and new ideas. Anyone can voice their opinion and sway the representatives there. We all have the power to make LUCC and Lawrence University better.
Speeches on Main Hall green
