Can they keep their Promises?
By ERIN LaRUFFA
Associate News Editor
As the campaign for student body president heats up, many students may be wondering whether the candidates will actually be able to follow through with certain campaign promises.
In fact, while many platform ideas are feasible, there are some campaign promises that candidates will probably never be able to fulfill.
Some of the ideas are ones that the Student Senate has already looked into, according to senator Aldo Tesi, but administrators have told them those ideas will not work.
"We've looked into [many of] them. They're not necessarily unfeasible, but it seems their ideas weren't looked into," said Tesi, who is a co-chair of the senate's residence life committee. "The likelihood of some of them happening seems really low to me."
For example, candidates Scott Palko and P.J. Mercanti want to initiate research into the possibility of installing air conditioning in all dorms, something that senators have already researched.
"The residence life committee looked into air conditioning. It might be possible but it would cost a ton. There's other things the University has to spend money on," Tesi said.
In fact, while adding air conditioning is something that could be looked into, according to Debbie Murray, a manager in the maintenance department, it would be difficult and expensive to install in older dorms.
"To be perfectly honest, a lot of these buildings are not constructed for air conditioning," said Murray.
Additionally, Tesi questioned proposals to change meal plans. Dining hall officials, he said, have already explained to senators why meal plans are structured the way they are.
"They're doing the best they can. It's not like the school is trying to screw the students," said Tesi.
Nevertheless, candidates do have meal plan changes in their platform. Palko and Mercanti want students to receive flex points for unused meals at the end of the week.
Tina Durski, card services manager in the food services department, does not believe it is possible to rollover meals into flex points with the current card services system.
"Technically, I don't know how we would do that," she said. She added that while budgeting is outside the realm of her job, based on her experience she believes the overall cost of meal plans would have to go up if students were receiving extra flex points.
"Anything you do to increase the average amount of meals a student eats increases the price of the meal plan," Tesi said.
Increase meal plan options — something proposed by the ticket of Libby Bishop and Trip Foley — is somewhat more reasonable, according to Durski, as long as the plan is within reason.
"You don't want the number of meals to be so low that you're encouraging people to skip meals or cook in their dorm rooms," said Durski.
Improving Grab `n' Go is another proposal that has come up.
"Somebody told me that the ticket with the best Grab `n' Go scheme would win. Give me a break," said Tesi. He explained that adding more food choices to Grab `n' Go might cause logistical problems.
"It's not impossible, but space in each of the Grab `n' Go locations is an issue," he said.
Another ticket, that of Nikki McCord and Nick Williams, promises to restart SafeRide, a program that previous administrations have tried and failed to implement.
In addition, Bishop and Foley propose expanding the Notre Dame/Saint Mary's shuttle service to new locations, such as the University Park Mall.
However, according to Student Activities director Brian Coughlin, it is unlikely that the shuttle service will expand to go to the mall, but Transpo Bus Service already runs from campus to the mall. Moreover, the University just renewed its contract with United Limo, and so adding more stops would have to wait a few years until that contract came up for renewal.
Expanded shuttle service is not impossible, however, Coughlin said, especially if the stop is at a location where students volunteer. The service has recently been expanded to include the Robinson Community Learning Center and the Legal Aid Clinic.
"There is precedent for it now that they've added two stops," said Coughlin.
Another weakness of some platform issues is the fact that they seem outside the realm of student government.
For example, two platforms have proposed something similar to a dating service. In the platform of Brian Moscona and Keri Oxley, the proposal takes the form of "Out-4-Lunch," while McCord and Williams call their plan "It's Just Lunch."
Tesi questioned whether such programs are "office of the president type stuff."
Moscona and Oxley's platform also offers a variety of carnivals — IRISHFEST, tradition night, Hey Day, ND Irish Feis. While the feasibility of planning these carnivals may not be problematic, student attendance has traditionally been an issue with similar events, like Founder's Day.
"It depends on what time of year it is," said Abe Pinon, a junior. "If it's at the beginning of the semester yes, [I would go]. But after that I probably wouldn't go because I will have homework to do."
Jacob Rodenbiker, also a junior said, "I wouldn't attend because I am already involved in many other organizations that have attractions of their own. I don't really find programming of student government to be more attractive than the activities that I am already involved with people I know, rather than random people."
All News Stories for Thursday, February 7, 2002
