Evidence: the Key to Great Advocacy

We are nearly to the election debates! With the vote on Wednesday we will be finished with the entire election itself. As campaign goes by I have gotten some great questions from students about my platform around Financial Aid, Housing and Academics.

My ideas boil down to this: with solid evidence backing any and all of our ideas we will have the basis upon which to advocate for real change. Rock-solid evidence about the General Studies financial aid system, the University housing system and academics will be what gives us a chance to argue for change at the higher levels of the university. As student body president my role will be to ensure that evidence is being collected to make great arguments AND that when those arguments are ready, the political path has been laid to the appropriate university leadership to which we will present the argument.

As president I will identify where the ideas of students in General Studies coincide with those of the administration - or do not. I will work to make the administration aware of student initiatives as they coalesce over time. The administration does not like to be surprised, evidence to this effect is overwhelming. On the contrary the administration prefers a partnership with the council on issues as they come from the student body. Fundamentally the university is a complicated political system.

Often the Dean of Students office benefits when the student body offers assistance to it through student messages to the university administration. I will strive to identify those opportunities. In the end with the goal of forming a partnership, where the student body and council gains a track-record of working productively with the Dean of Students and other areas of the university administration. However, the basis of all this is a never-ending focus on identifying critical questions and answers behind the issues.

To obtain the critical questions about Financial Aid, Housing and Academics (etc) I will work personally with both the council and the student body. This is something that has already been happening, with some success, but not in an organized, systematic, measurable or public way. The student body demands clarity and solutions to a number of issues, my systematic approach to finding evidence for change and then working the Columbia University political machinery is the way to bring about the results General Studies deserves.