Endorsement Statement – KRUI 89.7 FM
Undergraduate students will have the chance to have their voice heard as voting for the University of Iowa Student Government (UISG) begins Wednesday, April 8 at 8:00 am and ends Thursday, April 9 at 5:00 pm.
After careful analysis of the platforms for both the BEACH Party and REAL Party, we as the Board of Directors at KRUI have come to the conclusion that students should vote for Liz Mills, Morgan Brittain, and the 39 senator candidates that make up the REAL Party ticket. The combination of a well-researched, achievable platform and student leaders who are both involved and passionate provide REAL with the best foundation to handle challenges facing University of Iowa students and UISG today.
The REAL Party platform addresses one of the most pressing concerns facing KRUI and other student organizations housed in the Iowa Memorial Union: the availability of meeting and office space. As one of the many student organizations that operate out of the IMU, we are particularly concerned by a recent trend in building operations – dedicated space for student groups is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Offices are becoming group workspaces, cubicles are becoming storage lockers, and storage lockers are considered a luxury. Further, these reallocations have taken place without consulting with some or all of groups that would be affected by them. Reserving a public meeting room at the IMU has proved to be unreliable, and makes it difficult for any organization to conduct operations in an efficient manner, let alone an organization the size of KRUI. We back the REAL Party’s initiative to ensure that students are a priority in the allocation of the IMU’s ground floor. They are taking action on a problem that has been plaguing the fantastic organizations on this campus for years.
Another major issue the REAL Party platform faces head-on is the issue of transparency around student government. For years, student organizations have been forced into a funding process that has centered on one, sometimes two five-minute meetings that allow them to inform student government what they have accomplished. By making UISG more transparent and open with student organizations and students on campus by giving student leaders a voice in roundtables and forums, the REAL Party will improve the line of communication between student government and its constituents. This transparency will help bridge the gap that has been created between students and UISG in recent years, and provide the opportunity for the REAL Party to make lasting and useful changes.
The BEACH Party platform has several initiatives we at KRUI wholeheartedly support, including issues such as sexual assault and mental health.
While these issues are not specifically addressed in the REAL Party platform, senator candidates Rachel Zuckerman and Brendan Power took time to clarify their party’s stance on during KRUI’s forum with both parties held at High Ground on Monday, April 6.
“We were very excited to talk about how we want to work in collaboration with other organizations doing this work and we don’t want to drown other messages by creating similar campaigns to those that already exist,” Zuckerman said in an interview with the Daily Iowan. “Rather, we want to work with professionals who have the expertise.”
By empowering existing organizations, like the Student Advisory Committee on Sexual Misconduct, the REAL Party can provide organizations with expertise in the subject area the chance to work with students affected by these issues. In turn, these partnerships will enable these organizations make a more profound and lasting difference in the University of Iowa community.
So while we encourage students to research both platforms before voting, (uiowabeachparty.com and uirealparty.com), we as the Board of Directors for KRUI feel the decision is clear.
UISG needs to get REAL.
-Board of Directors, KRUI 89.7 FM
