[1080] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: update..
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Drew Starr)
Wed Mar 13 01:43:08 2002
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Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 00:53:34 -0500
From: Drew Starr <drew@MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
Peter,
As an undergraduate voting in this election, I appreciate your input.
However, I don't believe you've provided the electorate enough (or any)
information to back up your claims of the Bush Fund's inability to be used
in the way Creighton and Brar are trying to use it . Having read the little
I've been able to find about the Bush Fund and elections procedure and
spoken to some current and past UA officers, I have found no evidence to
indicate the fund is anything other than completely discretionary. I can
find no legislation that changes the original intent of the fund nor any
article in the Tech indicating it's purpose had been altered as a result of
prior scandal.
However, for the sake of argument, let us assume your statement is accurate
and the fund must explicitly be used at the UAP's discretion either to make
his/her job easier or to benefit students on campus. The Creighton / Barr
proposal would return $10 to each of 500 undergraduates -- greater than 10%
of the population. I assure you, Peter, $10 would benefit me, I'm sure there
are at least 499 like-minded students in our population.
You ask people to vote their conscience. If someone feels that their vote
has a value of $10 or less, their conscience dictates they vote Creighton /
Barr. If a majority of students have determined the outcome of the UA
election has no more value than $10 to them, it will be an indictment of the
UA, and, indirectly, of its leadership past and present -- which I
understand you probably take as a personal attack. As you know, I am very
close friends with past and present UA officers and realize they have all
put significant energy into the organization. Yet, as I sit here on the
brink of deciding who to vote for, I can honestly say that $10 is starting
to get very tempting. Having experienced 4 years of the MIT administration
continually shitting on the undergraduate body and seeing little in
effective response on the part of the UA (endless committees and reports do
not comprise an effective response), I feel it might be time for a drastic
change in leadership. Rhett certainly would represent such a drastic change.
In the past, he has stated the UA is mired in committees, and I think he's
right. And I also think $10 might be pretty cool.
Call me jaded,
Drew
P.S. By the way, your "parliamentarian" definition of "point of information"
is completely false. A point of information is an interruption of the
speaker ro request specific information regarding process or content of a
motion. It is NOT a way to get the floor to say something the declarer feels
everyone else should know. Such a use of point of information is out of
order and any parliamentarian worth their salt will request the chair
disallow the speaker. Repeated violations often result in sanctions or
censure.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Shulman" <skip@MIT.EDU>
To: <mit-talk@MIT.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2002 11:56 PM
Subject: update..
>
> it might be worth mentioning, as a former UA President, that the "Bush
> Fund," which has received much publicity over the past few days,
> cannot -- by any stretch -- be used to buy votes.
>
> the fund, while _originally_ designed to provide incentive to the UAP
> (given the time and energy it takes away from what most students do
> here -- study), it is now quite explicitly used at the discretion of
> the UAP for things either that make doing the job of UAP easier or
> that are used to benefit students on this campus.
>
> typical uses over the past few years included supporting student
> activities and events that needed emergency cash, purchasing office
> supplies for the UA office, and helping to sponsor charity events.
>
> this is just what parliamentarians call a "point of information" --
> whomever you vote for, vote your conscience -- ask about the issues,
> pose challenging questions, and think about who you want to speak for
> undergrads during the many changes that will happen on campus next
> year.
>
> --**peter
>
> -----------
>
> Peter A Shulman '01
> Ph.D. Student, History and Social
> Study of Science and Technology
> Massachusetts Institute of Technology
> Cell: 617 461-4538
>
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