Last year there was certain energy around campus: perhaps one of the most significant elections in recent history was taking place and political activism was coming to life on campus. It did not matter what political ideology you identified with, or what issue you found to be most compelling, there was a conversation happening somewhere on campus. The question is now whether or not a campus that has never been significantly politically active will continue to expand on that political and activist energy, or during the relative quiet during a year when there is not a presidential or congressional election will that energy fade away.
What may capture the interest of the student body is a debate that has heated up during the month of August as students prepared to return to campus for the fall semester. The debate over health care reform has already sparked some student activism, as students participated in the recent town hall on health care reform that was presented by Congressman Chet Edwards. The Texas A&M Chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas voiced opposition to health care reform, while the Aggie Democrats voiced their support of health care reform. However, it is difficult to predict if this single issue will be able to propel students who have not been involved in politics or activism before to become involved now. Despite being the most politically conservative student body in the country, there is not a considerable amount of conservative political activism on campus. Perhaps the most consistently politically active group of conservative students have been active in off campus activism; over the last several years several students have been actively involved with the pro-life activism off of campus. Students have regularly been among the protesters who stand outside of the fence at Planned Parenthood, and many join in the 40 Days for Life campaign which now takes place twice a year. However, many other students have joined those like myself who stand inside the fence, and escort patients and clients inside the clinic to provide them with support and be there for people who are making a very difficult choice.
There is a new group of activist students that may be reaching out on campus, a group of students that a much more progressive but do not actively participate in partisan politics. The Human Rights Coalition, which was founded as a local grassroots organization earlier this year, is working towards becoming recognized on the Texas A&M campus. Originally founded by Charles Biash, Amelia Mayer, and Renee Robinson, this group of community members and students has focused on several issues from social justice to animal rights, and has modeled itself less after the hierarchal political organizations and more as a community of activists. Currently Braden Deckard is working with anthropology professor Michael Alvard to gain recognition as an organization on campus, and to bring more progressive activist opportunities to students. Most recently the Human Rights Coalition played a very significant role in the protest of the immigrant family detention center T. Don Hutton in Tyler, Texas, and the coalition of activist organization that protested the detention center eventually lead to the closure of the facility as a family detention center and the changing of the Obama Administration's policies towards immigrant detention. However, organizations like this one are the exception that proves the rule.
This evening, the University Democrats will be holding their annual fundraiser. The event will review what the club has accomplished over the past year, and there is also a VIP reception honoring Ian Davis for the work he has done for Democrats in Austin.
Although there is a fundraiser every year, I think this one might be especially important for the club. The club is going into a Fall semester with no elections and no legislative session. For every UT club, though, fall semesters are crucially important to recruit new members, as the old class of seniors must be replaced. Unlike most of the other Democratic clubs in Austin, membership is a revolving door here.
But recruitment is going to need some extra resources and some extra ingenuity on the part of the officers (most likely led by Melessa Rodriguez and Andy Jones, who are currently running unopposed for President and Vice President, respectively).
As a member, I can say that the leaders of the club would greatly appreciate if you would stop by, chip in a tad to the club's funds, and voice your ideas on how to run a successful Fall semester. I've posted the event info below the fold.
Oddly, though, Audrey Campbell was named and certified the winner Wednesday night after receiving a plurality of 40.5 percent of the vote with 1,785 votes. She finished only 69 votes ahead of the second place finisher, Jillian Sheridan. Student Government officials who attended the certification meeting did not know of the Texas Student Media Board's rules that the winner must receive a majority. No representative of the Board was present at that meeting, either.
Even more peculiar, though, is the date of the runoff. After thinking Ms. Campbell would serve as the next Editor-in-Chief, the student body learned today that instead a runoff would begin...tomorrow. And it will finish Wednesday evening. This provides virtually no time for student organizations to discuss the vote or for former supporters of Josh Haney to spend much time thinking about the now-restricted options.
Both Audrey and Jillian have run very different campaigns. Jillian's supporters have displayed a rabid tendency that heavily reflects her stated belief that hired columnists should not be "afraid to get out there and offend people." Audrey's campaign has been much quieter, perhaps demonstrating her emphasis on "good writers with fresh ideas" who would, by implication, speak for themselves.
Both candidates have served this academic year as Associate Editor of the Daily Texan, so one can find their past editorials by searching DailyTexanOnline.com. Both also only started work with the Texan last year; Jillian as a columnist and Audrey as a reporter.
By the way, Daily Texan Online has been a significant subject during the election discussions. The Daily Texan recently lost control over its printing press, and the website currently lags well behind major newspapers as the media shifts more towards the internet. Without control over the press anymore, both candidates would consider doing away with the College Media Network and taking more ownership over the site itself.
Finally, I will comment on their political beliefs. Ms. Sheridan claims to be a "free thinker" who is too young to have any solidified political beliefs. Sheridan has several strong supporters within the College Republicans, however, along with a few enemies in the University Democrats. Sheridan also interned under the Press Secretary of Kay Bailey Hutchison's previous reelection campaign. The political views of Campbell are unknown.
In posting some of the various endorsements in the ongoing UT Student Government election, I forgot to link to the election website since all voting takes place online. In fact, it will be all night tonight and through tomorrow until 5pm. I remember bringing up that point in SG like 4 years ago in asking why an online voting system would have to close at 5pm one day and restart at 8am the next. That's actually not an insignificant issue as it can push GOTV and organizing into dorms and frats whose community is much stronger in the afterhours, though the dorms are considerably larger.
The most exciting thing for me about the new elections is how campaigns are forced to campaign differently. With excessively low spending limits and the dissolution of tickets with online extended voting hours, evening voting and email pushes can be much more powerful. I actually got a vote reminder from 'executive alliance' likely to come in 2nd place via email which appears to have come from a string of emails from the UT directory.
Phillip Tau and Sarah-Michelle have an interesting website: www.pstelleveryone.com and have posted this rather funny video.
I'm curious to see tomorrow night how things sort out and what trends we can see in the results. I'm almost halfway expecting no great increase in turnout unless the sheer number of candidates running are each activating more smaller social networks which could counter the drop I'd expect from the lack of "ticket hoopla". Then again, maybe all the ticket based hoopla acted as a suppressant to other voters. I'd expect that lacking tickets, more voters might be keen to vote the Texan endorsement which would increase the media's power in that regard. And there is the possibility that large organizational endorsements like UDems could have a more pronounced effect.
A reminder, there won't be runoffs in any of the downticket races, just the presidential (so far as I remember).
Update: How could I forget to post on Zak Kinnaird's campaign of humor. Two videos, the first models after "Morning in America" somewhat.
This isn't of much interest to the rest of the state, but in the context of this site's birth out of both the University Democrats and UT politics, here are the UDems endorsements in today/tomorrow's student government elections.
I don't have anything to add other than I'll re-iterate these endorsements, specifically that of the presidential and vice presidential executive alliance. Liam actually used to be a 'student' of mine in the Liberal Arts Honors program. While his background more typically matches the profile of the continuous string of typical SG presidents, he's still the better candidate here. So with that, I'll unilaterally offer a Burnt Orange Report endorsement of Liam O'Rourke and Shara Ma for President and VP. I'll also endorse Zac Padgett for Law School Representative as he's also a former Liberal Arts Honors student from my writing mentor days.
The University Democrats endorsements are...
Executive Alliance for President and Vice-President: Liam O'Rourke and Shara Ma
University-Wide Representatives: Jimmy Talarico, Melessa Rodriguez, Minator Azemi, Alex Ferraro, and Justin Stein
McCombs School of Business Representatives: Alex Greenberg and Carly Alter
College of Communication Representatives: Diane Nguyen
College of Education Representatives: Joe Anderson, Jr.
Graduate Student Representatives: John Woods, Shannon Mann, Marina Del Sol, and Elisa Jacob
College of Liberal Arts Representatives: Andy Jones, Thaddeus Woody, John Lawler, and Sarah Hobson
College of Natural Sciences Representatives: Matt Daley, Timi Komonibo, and Ori Melnik
Update by Michael: KT did not mention the Daily-Texan-Editor in Chief, which is also elected by the Student Body. There are actually three candidates for one of the first contested editor elections in years. I have interviewed all three as part of a committee to help decide the Texan's endorsement for the position. The Texan eventually endorsed Jillian Sheridan, but I disagreed with the decision. While all three candidates are quite qualified, Jillian seemed more interested in creating discussion through provocation than through intelligent discourse. My personal choice is Josh Haney, because he argued for competency as his most important factor in hiring writers, and because he seemed most prepared for the position of Editor-in-Chief. Impressively, Haney had many thoughts on improving the dismal Daily Texan website.
Many of you should know about the now infamous steak dinner with John Sharp that was attended by a handful of progressive Texas bloggers. The dinner, more than anything else, was an effort by John Sharp to represent an important grassroots constituency: a group of bloggers that, when motivated enough, can force an opinion to trickle down to other Texas Democratic activists. It was these Texas bloggers, more than most others, who enticed a well credentialed Rick Noriega to run for the United States Senate, and helped push him to winning the nomination without a runoff -- an occurrence that had not been seen for decades.
That said, we aren't always the top grassroots force on the ground. While the writers you read here at the Burnt Orange Report are young and energetic, the block walkers you see during election cycles are not mostly bloggers. Instead, these campaign troops were often assembled initially in different Democratic clubs.
So it makes sense for Bill White, who has already begun securing resource #1 (money), to reach out to resource #2: the young kids of one of those Democratic clubs.
White hasn't yet asked a group of bloggers to sit down for a conference call or coffee or dinner, and I wish he would. But earlier last week, when someone on his campaign saw that he would be in Austin this Wednesday, he made the prudent decision to call up the University Democrats. According to Jimmy Talarico, the group's president, he just called wanting to know if he could stop by and say a few words. Talarico, jumping on the opportunity to have a money hauling big-city mayor and US Senate candidate at his meeting, arranged for him to be the night's main speaker.
Here's to hoping he makes a good impression. As we have seen with Tony Sanchez, you can't win Texas on dollars alone. Especially with the great possibility of an open election, one of our Democrats will need a burst of door-to-door energy if they have their eyes set on victory.
The final vote by the UT Student Government on AR 12, a resolution supporting the abolition of tuition deregulation policy, was the following: 14 in favor, 23 against, 1 abstention, and 5 absenses. Here is a breakdown of the representatives who are running for reelection or higher office.
Those who voted in favor of AR 12:
Melessa Rodriguez, one year at-large running for "reelection" to campus-wide rep.
Eliseo Jacob, graduate rep. running for reelection
Marina del Sol, graduate rep. running for reelection
Those who voted against AR 12 and are running for reelection or higher office:
David Chincanchan, two-year At Large running for "reelection" to a campus-wide representative spot.
Justin Stein, Liberal Arts rep. running for campus-wide rep.
James Woodward, running unopposed for reelection to the LBJ school rep.
Those absent from the vote:
Jake Lewis, running unopposed for reelection to Fine Arts rep.
Avni Modi, running for reelection to Natural Sciences Rep.
And the one who abstained:
Shara Kim Ma, business representative running for election to STUDENT BODY VICE PRESIDENT
Now, my comments. First, I felt that the UT Student Government disgraced itself today. Not that they would have if they didn't pass it no matter what -- but only 14 votes yes? 5 absences and an abstention from one of the most important votes in recent SG memory? I feel confident to say that significantly more than 14/43 of UT students would have supported AR 12, yet that is the support it garnered by UT student government today. I feel that student government has a long ways to go to represent students with some sort of full legitimacy. I felt today that some members were representing the UT bureaucracy more than students. That's not to say that no one had legit reasons to vote no, but I feel that AR 12 should definitely have garnered more than 14 votes.
As for individuals...I am disappointed with the people who voted no, and their ability to represent students is in question...but at least they were able to show up and pick a side. 5 Absences, really? That, especially for Jake Lewis and Avni Modi, is a major show of cowardice. I don't even know what is going on with Lewis -- he doesn't have an opponent to even hide from!
But the absences might not be as bad as the one abstention. Shara Kim Ma, someone who wants to represent all UT students as their Vice President, abstained. What a show of conviction from a true student leader? Right...
But Ma's story is worse than that alone. Liam O’Rourke, the UT Presidential candidate who is shares his ticket with Ma, was one of the initiators of AR 12. His early support gave Tuition Relief Now! people the belief that this had a legitimate chance of passing. Then he backed off, presumably for political reasons. Earlier in the process, Shara Ma helped with the actual writing of the resolution. She was going to be listed as an author, but she backed off even later than O'Rourke backed off. And she then would not even vote for the bill she helped write in the first place... Quite simply, under no circumstances does this ticket deserve the trust of students to be their top leaders.
As far as the overall implications on the elections, I'm not sure how true the threats by some are that everyone who didn't vote for this would lose. First, there are the two lucky ones (Woodward and Lewis) whose support couldn't be found and simultaneously do not have opponents. They will win by default.
Beyond that, the failure of this resolution will, in part, be a test of the ability of third-party groups in student government elections that just recently rid itself of political parties. I have confirmation that the University Democrats plan to make endorsements, and I imagine other groups will, too. Will Chincanchan, Stein, and Modi all lose their election bids? Probably not, but I suspect at least one will lose. And it would not surprise me if all three fail, too. Oh, and my expectations are significantly lower for the O'Rourke/Ma ticket.
The biggest non-appropriations vote of the year is done in Student Government. Now it's elections time. For those following UT student politics (even if that is few of you), this should be fun to watch.
Opening Statement: I am in the Mahoney room for tonight's student government meeting. Among a few other things, AR 12, "In Support of Tuition Relief," is on today's docket. The resolution, most controversially, advocates re-regulation of public university tuition in Texas.
Firstly, I do not think this vote will actually change whether or not re-regulation will pass through the legislature. I think there is, without a doubt, a TON of political support for re-regulation. Some sort of plan for re-regulation will almost definitely pass through the legislature.
What this resolution will do, however, is voice the official support from the UT students for re-regulation. That would allow "Tuition Relief Now!" activists to more quickly pass re-regulation and focus on the other necessary aspects of tuition reform.
Finally, on the upcoming SG elections. Most representatives who are running for reelection or higher office do actually have opposition. For these candidates, there are a couple possibilities if they do not vote with AR 12:
1. The resolution could pass, in which case such representatives against Tuition Relief Now! would not get the group's support, but will also not receive heavy opposition campaigning from the Tuition relief activists. (That is, unless the representative is firmly against tuition re-reg.)
2. The resolution could fail. In this case, the student tuition relief activists will be angry. Such activists will then campaign hard to ABSOLUTELY ensure that no one who voted against tuition reregulation would be reelected.
------------------------
9:21: Officially 14 in favor. Well short of passing the resolution. SG has just disgraced itself just a little bit. I'll write a follow up significantly later or tomorrow...when my computer has more battery.
Disclaimer: I am an active member of the University Democrats, but I do not currently hold any office or official responsibilities within the organization.
The University Democrats' PR Man, Andy Jones, can be attributed to a fine list of achievements when it comes to media publications that have mentioned UDems under his guidance. But I'm not sure of Harvey Kronberg has mentioned the activist club in his "Daily Buzz," which provides headlines and articles that Texas political observers could use as a barometer on some of the movements within the higher circles of this state's government.
So when a group spearheaded by University Democrat and College Republican members got the notice of Harvery Kronberg, I certainly noticed, too.
YOUNG DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS UNITE IN OPPOSITION TO TUITION INCREASES
UT's University Democrats and Campus Republicans take part in rare coordinated effort to scale back tuition deregulation.
You can expect a bit of glasnost in the air Wednesday night at the University of Texas, where young Democrats and Republicans will join hands over tuition deregulation, which has doubled the cost of classes at UT in the last four years.
UT's University Democrats and Campus Republicans have joined together to launch a campaign to rein in tuition costs. Tuition Relief Now! has a logo, a Facebook page and an auditorium on the UT campus on Wednesday night to address the issue.
Spokesman Andy Jones of the University Democrats, toiling well into the early hours of Monday morning to promote the event, was willing to answer the phone at midnight last night, around the time a promotional e-mail hit hundreds of in-boxes around Austin. Jones said the effort is both widespread and universal.
The auditorium he speaks of is GAR 0.102, the regular meeting place for the University Democrats, which will be meeting at the club's regular time, Wednesday night at 8 pm. Senator Hinojosa and Senator Dan Patrick will be available as guest speakers. Hinojosa is the principal author for SB 105, one of the multiple tuition relief bills, and Patrick is a co-author.
I was confused to why Patrick, arguably the most radically conservative member in the legislature, was chosen as a guest speaker. I spoke extensively with both Andy Jones and UDems President Jimmy Talarico on the subject, and I could not get an answer beyond the fact that Patrick co-authors one of the acceptable tuition relief bills. Jones mentioned that despite his own concern about Patrick's staunch conservatism, "I'm hopeful that partisan politics can be put aside." All-in-all, I would have hoped that the University Democrats and their temporary-partners with the College Republicans could have picked a more tenured and respected Republican, such as Senator Harris, a Senate member since 1991 and also an SB 105 sponsor.
At any rate, the meeting tomorrow should be interesting. If you cannot make it, I will be twittering the meeting @MJJHurta, and I will hopefully get a write-up posted after the meeting.
Thankfully, it seems that most students at UT do have their wits together. The student body realizes that it is better for the legislature, accountable to them and their parents, to control tuition than the Board of Directors. Unfortunately, some in Student Government do not feel that way. Tuition Regulation legislation was proposed at the SG meeting earlier Tuesday, and the reaction among the members were mixed. In general, many of those in what one member called the "SG Establishment" were for a continuation of DEREGULATION. Student body president Keshav Rajagopalan even used executive privilege to give a long speech against regulation. I hope none of these people are running for another SG election, because Student Government, as oddly corrupt as it may be, is still a Democratic body. I predict that no SG member will win reelection if he or she votes, officially representing UT students, against tuition regulation.
The UDems held their elections for spring officers last night. Being that the organization was recognized as being the best in the country last year, it's only fitting that we follow their success. The new leadership wasn't contested but downballot races saw some challenges.
The new president comes out of the Mark Strama world, going through his Campaign Academy in 2006 and interning this year. Those folks go places. :)
President:
Jimmy Talarico- No opposition, Voted in by voice acclamation
Vice President:
Melessa Rodriguez- No opposition, Voted in by voice acclamation
