Dear Friends of the University Community,
I am running for the position of Undergraduate Liaison to the Board of Trustees, and I welcome you to participate actively in these year's elections by voting on April 20th-22nd at sg.uchicago.edu.
I’m an economics and international relations major in the college, raised in Venezuela, but moved to Miami in 2003, where I served as President of Krop's Student Government and Liaison to the School Board. I am running for Liaison to the Board with a passion for progress and fair representation. I have actively participated in SG and the Chicago Coalition of Colleges- served on two vital funding committees that benefit the way our RSOs pursue their interests on campus- the Uncommon Fund and Annual Allocations, as well as CORSO, which approves new RSOs on campus.
The Liaison is appointed to bring our voice to the Board of Trustees. Other than meeting with Administrators and Student Government, the Liaison is required to attend the Board’s quarterly meetings. Since the Trustees have busy schedules, by the time they come to the meetings, discussions on issues have already occurred and thoughts been shaped. What’s worth having a voice, if we will only be heard when the conversations have already taken place?
When elected, I will bring us to the discussions early on, and I will create a website through which issues will be available to everyone in the University community so as to include them in the process. I’ve already met with Andrew Alper, the recently appointed chairman to the Board and he’s willing to work with us. My platform: A voice, a website, transparency, support for increasing financial aid (UNDERGRAD and GRADUATE FUNDING) and diminishing budget cuts, encourage tactful expansion and strengthen relations with Hyde Park. I plan on increasing communication channels by tapping into our most impactful resource- Advisers. Through them, I'll send out surveys that target specific issues on campus to fairly represent the opinion of our student body.
I understand this may be a one man role, but nonetheless it is not a one man show. As early as elected, I'd start working on establishing relations with committee members, the slate and administration. I believe in expanding the role of the Liaison rather than aiming for a vote, yet first we must increase our impact where we have been given a chance to speak!
I hope to be able to work with the Chicago Maroon to publish an article once a quarter briefing my fellow students on my endeavors. I am for a wider recognition of SG presence and as such will push endeavors to get more access to students, by having elected officers present at big events, surveys through advisors, and much more.
Please message me to learn more about my campaign!
Below an interview with the Maroon from my initial candidacy (last year):
Addition [4/20]: For a current interview visit www.chicagomaroon.com
What do you think the role of the liaison is when it comes to political disputes of the University (such as the union contract, or divestment from Darfur in previous years)?
I think the Liaison is elected to represent the Interests of the Student Body to the Board. If there’s a considerable amount of Students Petitioning for a specific issue, that has the potential of affecting student and/or campus life, is it the Liaison’s responsibility to be completely effective in conveying their purpose. It is part of the Liaison’s role to guide the students through their ways of expressing discontent or desire for change. Even if the Liaison was unsupportive of a certain issue, his function would be to make himself available and representative of all students for equal.
Do you support adding a voting student member to the board of trustees?
No. I believe that we (the students) were given the opportunity to sit on the Board to brief and shape policy, issues and agendas. It takes more than two decades of age to understand the complexities of every action and policy they implement, and therefore, it should be left to the Trustees to make the ‘executive decisions’. I think that instead of focusing our manpower in pushing the board to give us a vote, students could be bringing about much greater change by spending time understanding our community and campus, their interaction, and the economic drift that changes it on a daily basis
What organizations have you been involved in on campus?
Sit on the Annual Allocations Committee (Student Gov), President at Chabad; Student Rep. for the Coalition of Chicago Colleges; Info Primary for MUNUC; Assistant Chair for ChoMUN; Treasurer of Jewish Action; Rep. for PSAC; Board Member of the Uncommon Fund, Member of the Gilbert F. White Leadership Program; Student Government Proxy, Entrepreneurship Club, Inter-House Council
What types of events do you think you could provide as liaison to give students more access to the board of trustees?
I’ve attended this year’s open forums with the President and some Vice-Presidents of our University, as well as a Brown Bag lunch with the newly appointed Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Andrew Alper. I would definitely keep these types of events coming. To give students the opportunity to first-hand interact with their administrators and trustees is a much stronger cause than attempting to gather data to represent them. In addition, I would hold office hours once a week and publish them on a website that I have promised to make, where all issues and BOT plans would be published for Students to view, comment on and cyber-discuss. This position requires that one reaches out to students in every way possible, and as long as I am elected, the University community will see my efforts focused on reaching out extensively to the student body through online forms, blogs, emails, surveys, by coming up to them in campus to talk or survey them. I have proposed to utilize our academic advisors to distribute quarterly surveys for students to answer. This is the best way of reaching out to undergraduates if one truly seeks to be representative of the whole.
The position of Liaison is geared towards representing undergraduates at our institution, but seeing that Graduate students are not represented in this year’s election, I understand that the focus of the position changes to a great extent. We NEED to reach out more to each and EVERY one of our schools. People have things to say, ideas to implement and others to disagree about. Graduate funding is a huge issue In campus and we need to tackle it in our primary agenda. For this, I’d hold public meetings with Students at both the Graduate School and Undergraduate level to interact more firmly and share concerns.
A Liaison should tie together students and their Student Government and not just focus on the Board of Trustees. Most of this position is about establishing relations on behalf of the students with Trustees and administrators. It is through these relationships that the Liaison can truly make change, bring about progress and let students truly be interested in what’s going on at their University. Student Government doesn’t do a great job in portraying a presence in campus, and one of my goals is to do so. Let’s make SG popular, desirable, liked- a government for the students by the students.
Do you plan on studying abroad or take time off in the next year?
No. I will be matriculating at the University all three quarters in Chicago and giving my best to this position
What do you believe were the last liaisons' biggest successes and biggest failures in the last year? Where you feel they failed, what would you have done differently?
The Liaison did a great job with the immediate response to a sexual assault case that had developed in the University by developing the Working Group on the Sexual Assault Policy. It demonstrates the sort of action that a Liaison must take in such instances- gather a group of students representative of our UC and produce a document/argument that would be used appropriately by Trustees and administrators. The liaison had a great relationship with the Graduate Liaison, which strengthened their voice.
Nevertheless, there was much more work that could have been done- lobbying, representing, showing up. A great majority of our student body doesn’t know who our Liaison is; a great majority of them doesn’t know what a Liaison does. ‘Transparency’ the word everyone runs behind, is worthless if one isn’t going to be visible in the first place. I would have reached out to students more often than by email letting them know that there would be a brown bag lunch with x and y. If the position was all about setting up dates for lunches, we would be running to become facilitators, not liaisons.
Why should older students trust a second-year to understand the complex issues of our campus?
This is a job that requires building relationships, and I am looking forward to strengthen them over the years. I have dedicated this year to understanding our university, Student Government and our administration. Of the candidates, I am the most involved in campus and with Student Government, its funding bodies and the Chicago Coalition of Colleges. I understand how our funding bodies work and I’ve served in Annual Allocations and the Uncommon Fund this year, positions that few students, oftentimes seniors fill. I have the maturity and capacity it takes to establish relationships with Trustees and Administrators and expect to be taken seriously. I am the founder of Shoes4Africa, Inc. (DBA Help4Africa), a non-profit that sends shoes to impoverished communities in Nigeria and the Ivory Coast, www.World2Save.com and www.onejewonestory.com. I was the President of a High School in Miami that enrolls over 4,000 students, and the Liaison to the School Board of Miami-Dade. Students should feel assured that by electing me, they are putting someone on the job that cares about what will happen to this position next year, someone who will keep his word and be ready to be accountable- someone with a passion and a will.
Is there anything else that you feel is important for us to know about yourself or your candidacy?
I’m an economics and international relations major in the college, born in Venezuela, but lived for the past seven years in Miami. I am fluent in Spanish, French and Hebrew. Although I did not win the elections for Student Government at the beginning of the year, I was the only one of the non-elected candidates to attend all Student Government meetings, and even proxy for every one of my class’s representatives various times, including some from other classes. I understand bureaucratic systems, but better yet, I know this position is not about what you can do in the meetings, but outside of them.
