[298] in UA Exec
Re: You are being lied to.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jessica H Lowell)
Sun Apr 4 18:26:22 2010
Date: Sun, 04 Apr 2010 18:26:17 -0400
From: Jessica H Lowell <jessiehl@MIT.EDU>
To: hwkns@mit.edu
Cc: Nathaniel Fox <natefox@mit.edu>, Alexandra Jordan <amjordan@mit.edu>,
Anthony Rindone <arindone@mit.edu>, UA Senate <ua-senate@mit.edu>,
UA
Executive Board <ua-exec@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <t2y9d4f87ed1004041437g84d5803cjb1c0ff747f17a399@mail.gmail.com>
Quoting Daniel Hawkins <hwkns@MIT.EDU>:
> Jessie,
>
> We tried coming up with our own proposal last year (DPC). Admins keep
> calling it "an important piece of student input" and completely ignoring its
> contents. What's driving this is the desire to eliminate the deficit and
> "build community" around dining, which involves less choice and more money
> (but not MIT's money - they need to eliminate the deficit). Those are
> principles that everyone in the administration (that I'm aware of) agrees
> on. I haven't talked to Matt - I'll send him an e-mail.
Yeah, I saw the proposal. It looked like a good step. It's the same
old story
with Dining. When I dealt with that, though, it was easier, because larryben
(Columbo's predecessor) was still around and he was on our side.
Who does Columbo listen to? Presumably Phil Clay, but I doubt Clay's useful
here. Immerman's gone, so that's a non-starter. The FSILGs generally have a
stake in students not getting screwed over on Dining, since less choice often
hurts their frosh and on-campus members - is anyone on the FSILG side of the
Student Life staff persuadable and trusted by Columbo? Could any of the RLAs
help here? If Admissions has any influence with Columbo, which they may not,
they'd likely be willing to help you out with him.
It sounds like if you keep working primarily with Columbo, you're not going to
get anywhere. Obviously, you have to work with him, communicate with him, not
antagonize him too much. But that doesn't mean you can't work with other
people (sounds like a good project for a senator or two!). And if you can dig
up administrative allies, they might be able to make more progress with
Columbo
than you can.
Have you bugged your rich potential-big-donor alumni? Many FSILGs and
some dorm
living groups keep in contact with a lot of their alumni, and might be able to
dig up a few wealthy folks who would be pissed about students being screwed
over on dining.
The UA has little real power given to it - it has to find ways to manufacture
its own.
- Jessie
