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The Occidental Weekly asked each ASOC Presidential candidate the same question: “Why are you running for ASOC President?” Each candidate – junior John O’Neill and sophomore Nick McHugh – responded to the question with their own Letters to the Editor.
From John O’Neill – Junior, Politics
This election is about the future of Occidental. It’s about whether anyone listens to your questions and concerns. It’s about making student priorities a campus priority.
Imagine a student-empowered campus: An admissions policy that values socioeconomic diversity. An effective alcohol policy that doesn’t punish students for looking after friends. Increased interaction between students and faculty outside the classroom.
Right now, student needs aren’t a campus priority. Students don’t help set the agenda on campus. Only in times of crisis do critical student issues rise to ‘top priority’ status — crises like alcohol poisonings, assaults, sexual misconduct. And even during these crises, students are not always included in finding solutions.
The Associated Students of Occidental College (ASOC) is supposed to advocate for students, holding others on campus accountable. But too much time is spent deciding how much to fund club events. Three meetings are held where one would suffice. Little time is left over for senators to act as student advocates. Students that want to start a movement or push for changes on campus don’t look to ASOC for guidance or leadership. At best, they might request funding for an event. But paying for dinner is not leadership.
I believe we can do better. I believe that ASOC can be a force for student empowerment. That Senators can be liaisons and advocates on campus, working with other student activists and media to make student needs a priority. As president, I will make sure ASOC Senate focuses on these twin roles of advocating for students and shifting the campus agenda toward student priorities. Because ASOC cannot simply react. We cannot simply wait for crisis to follow crisis.
We need to reform and reinvent ASOC to make it a force for change on campus, focusing the discussion on issues important to students. We need to learn from successful campus student movements that have also tried to push for change. The Occidental Sexual Assault Coalition (OSAC) offers two important lessons for this task.
1. Because reform though existing channels proved too slow, the coalition mobilized large numbers of students, faculty and alumni to focus attention on this crisis situation. Though it has proven effective, this model for change is not easily replicable and suggests broader reform is needed.
2. The Sexual Assault Task Force, formed to fix the sexual misconduct policy and oversee implementation, offers a model for other committees around campus. To ensure all perspectives are considered, the Task Force is made up of 2 students, 2 faculty, and 2 administrators, all with equal voting power.
Every decision-making committee on campus should adopt this balance: One-third students, one-third faculty, one-third administrators, with equal speaking and voting power.
I am running because I believe that change is possible. That Oxy can be a place where students feel respected and included in important decisions. And that the ASOC has an important role to play in pushing for this cultural shift. But it will require committed effort, clear goals, and strong leadership. I ask for your vote, and your help to make Occidental a campus where student priorities are campus priorities.
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From Nick McHugh – Sophomore, Politics & Economics
I was walking up to campus from Alumni Avenue one day last semester when I questioned whether or not I actually liked the layout of the campus. At the lowest level there’s athletics, the fountain, and the chapel, all of which are wonderful ancillary benefits to a college education; but you could argue they’re not necessary. I came across the Marketplace and the library on the quad level. I deemed that the sense of community was something incredibly important, maybe even a cornerstone of Occidental, but none of our diplomas will say “sense of community” on them. Which leads me to the next level of campus: just up the stairs to Johnson and Fowler, the academic buildings. Two beautiful buildings sitting in the middle of campus, one serving extra hours and students while the other is renovated (something we’ve all grown accustomed to, unfortunately). I thought to myself, “These two buildings represent what we’re all here for — an education.”
I continued until I faced the AGC building. As I did I looked around and something dawned on me. I realized that just by the layout of our campus, the administration is higher on the hill than athletics, higher than the chapel, the library, the academic buildings, and everything these buildings represent. I was discouraged by this observation. The layout of our campus reinforces this idea that the administration is all-powerful. And then I kept walking. I walked past AGC on my right and Fowler on my left and had another realization—the dorms are atop the hill, leaps and bounds higher than the administration. I came to a much more hopeful conclusion. We could have a college without an administration, it wouldn’t be ideal (or accredited for that matter) and we could probably survive without a faculty. I came to the conclusion that we, the students, are atop the hill. We are of highest importance; we are the lifeblood of this campus. Student priorities are already campus priorities, we just need to remind the administration of that.
I guess this my roundabout way of saying that as students, we hold more power than we give ourselves credit for. I want to be ASOC President because I want to hold the administration and faculty accountable for keeping students’ interests in mind when making decisions. In order to do so, I plan to promote a culture of transparency amongst the administrators and professors. To achieve an end goal of “transparency” I’d like to create a student advocacy group that would represent student interests on various faculty and administrative committees including but not limited to academics, residential life, conduct and financial aid.
In the end I’m not a politician: I’m a student like you. I think there are many minor things we can change as a campus, and I’m more than willing to be the person to lead the charge from the top of the hill.
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