On April 24, DU’s Undergraduate Student Government (USG) announced the results for their annual elections, with Cam Hickert, physics and international studies major from Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Jess Davidson, political science and public policy major from Fort Collins, Colorado, as President-Elect and Vice President-Elect, respectively. Their announced goals have the potential to create meaningful action on campus. However, more as a DU student than a Clarion writer, the priority of their platform seems worrisome to me, which focuses on school spirit, student life and administration, alcohol and campus safety than sexual assault.
“Our vision is simple: build bridges across campus to create meaningful action,” states the Hickert-Davidson campaign website. Their goals received support from students for good reason. There is a disconnect between USG and the organizations that most students participate in.
Hickert and Davidson rightfully focused on this disconnect through their campaign and, clearly, many students identified with this issue. By joining ideas of student organizations to USG, I have faith that Hickert and Davidson will be able to identify new opportunities for USG to improve student life across campus.
As a student participant in a few different on-campus organizations, I support the methods and strategies through which Hickert and Davidson plan on identifying campus problems. However, the issues themselves need to be prioritized better to reflect the greatest needs of the student body.
The first issue on their platform is school spirit. This is understandable to a certain extent. School spirit is something that can be improved at DU and it is a feasible goal for USG to improve, however it should not take precedence over other campus problems. Making hockey tickets free (the first action item listed under this issue) would be a nice change, but it is nowhere near the most pressing issue on-campus. The other action items, including increased funding to the spirit committee and increased access to USG are important changes, but they should not be included in the highest priority of Hickert and Davidson’s plan.
Additionally, issues such as financial aid, sexual assault, administrative red tape and student counseling and advising would have a much greater impact on the well-being of students.
Ultimately, Hickert-Davidson’s focus on school spirit represents a potential lack of seriousness in their campaign. To better reflect student needs, Hickert and Davidson should either move school spirit further down their list of priorities or substitute it for an already-identified issue on-campus, such as the need for financial aid and literacy or improved student counseling and advising.
The next issue on their platform, student life and administration, encompasses the methods mentioned above to connect student organizations. I wholeheartedly support these action items, which provide connections to many organizations that are important to many students and me. However, this does not mean that it should be as high in priority as their platform suggests. To better reflect the needs of the student body, this issue as a whole should be clearly made a strategy for identifying on-campus issues, rather than prioritized above already existing and clearly identified student needs.
The final two issues on their platform are very important: alcohol safety and campus safety (identified as one issue), and sexual assault. These are very important opportunities for meaningful change on-campus. Many community members have expressed dissatisfaction with DU Campus Safety. It is a problem that could be significantly improved with USG collaboration. Sexual assault has also become an increasing issue, as shown by recent Campus Safety notifications. Clearly, these issues are already identified and will likely have a lengthy timeline to create effective change in these problems.
Hickert and Davidson should prioritize action on these items before working on more menial campus problems like student spirit or before trying to identify more issues to address. These actions are examples of issues that clearly matter to students and should be prioritized as such. Furthermore, their focus on sexual assault almost singularly addresses awareness. They also need to ensure services and support to victims of sexual assault to create a comprehensive strategy for addressing the problem.
Ultimately, Hickert and Davidson have great potential to connect a variety of students across campus and I appreciate their support for student organizations, especially the Clarion. I think it’s definitely possible for them to successfully address all of the issues on their platform, but they need to adjust its arrangement to ensure that sexual assault and safety are receiving more attention than school spirit and organization connections.
I look forward to what Hickert and Davidson have in store for campus and have faith that they will be able to create meaningful change, as long as they recognize the priorities of student needs from the start.
