Dear Mr. Wolfe:
I do not think you understand what you are getting into Mr. Wolfe.
You are entering into a position where almost 2/3 people did not vote for you. I support the first-past-the-post system so I recognize this situation as a win, but you must also consider the situation as well. Look outside your office, if you see a group of 3 students, if the all voted, two of them did not vote for you.
How do you plan on reconciling this? Before I began this blog, I was the uninformed student. I am the one that you are apparently trying to reach. You were one of the few candidates NOT to talk to me, on the many occasions we were in the same area. How do you plan on reaching out beyond your core group of supporters and into the massive amount of students that voted for someone other than you?
Both Mr Garner and Mr Steeves achieved at least 1/4 of the student vote. It is up to you to prove to each and every one of those voters that you plan on representing them. You have been a member of the SFUO executive for a long time, and you choose to continue this role in some capacity. It is time for you to prove yourself to the masses. One of the first reasons I chose to support Renaud was because he was not you. You are our President now. Your first act must be to heal this broken campus. Sit there with the elections results and see how divided our campus is on almost every single position. See that, and remember how many students also voted 'no' for the CFS. These are the students that are ready in a second to begin an impeachment proceeding. It is up to you to show them there is no reason to do that.
You may be thinking this is not your job. Your job is to run the SFUO. But I tell you the truth, campus is broken right now. And if campus is broken, so is the SFUO and it is up to fix it. I wish you luck, but in that same vein, I will be watching. And I know 4829 other students who also didn't vote for you will be watching too.
Sincerely,
Kenneth Joly
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Had RPG won, would you be asking him how to reconcile the fact that a majority had not voted for him?
ReplyDeleteI think those are completely unfair statements to make. To begin, you are assuming that the other 4830 students do not support Seamus at all. They may have chosen to vote to for someone else, but could still support Mr. Wolfe as well. Not to mention the other 30,000 students whose opinions we are unsure of. We cannot assume either way.
ReplyDeleteSecond, as Mike mentioned, had anyone else won would you be criticizing the fact that they did not hold a majority? Chances are we probably would still see a split in the numbers. Either way, it is still irrelevant because the numbers are what they are, and it is Seamus who was clearly elected.
Your first act must be to heal this broken campus. Sit there with the elections results and see how divided our campus is on almost every single position. See that, and remember how many students also voted 'no' for the CFS. These are the students that are ready in a second to begin an impeachment proceeding. It is up to you to show them there is no reason to do that.
I also think that Mr. Wolfe is very aware that the campus is divided. His platform explicitly mentions reaching out to the groups and communities that are not yet represented. I also appreciate his plan of solidifying initiatives that have begun instead of spending a year trying to start new ones. In the 4 years I have been here, I have felt our campus has moved in a very "2 steps forward, 1 step back" kind of way. I think this plan will allow us to see tangible change for EVERY student. And that is one way to begin unifying this broken campus. Not to mention, your negative comments, Mr. Joly, are not doing anything to help remedy the broken nature of this campus.
I will leave my rant at that, but I believe it is unfair to criticize Mr. Wolfe before he is even out of the gate. Congratulations Seamus! I am excited to see what the next year holds!
Criticizing him before he is even out of the gate? What you are forgetting is that Mr. Wolfe has been a key member of the SFUO for two years now. Has he managed to reach out to the uninvolved groups? Nope.
ReplyDeleteHis plan is to continue the initiatives that led to a greatly divided campus. I don't think we have even taken the one step forward you speak of. In my 8 years in the university community, I see nothing but steps back I'm afraid.
If Renaud would have won with a 36% mandate, I would have told him the same thing. But a key part of many other candidates platform WAS to heal the divide between the SFUO and the students.