RUSA holds 2022 spring election debate

Last Thursday, the Rutgers University Student Assembly held a debate in anticipation of its 2022 spring election, inviting presidential, vice presidential and treasurer candidates to discuss their platforms and answer questions from the University’s student body. 

Historically, the Assembly's spring election cycle has allowed for groups of students to run and campaign together as a ticket, and this year is no exception.

In Thursday’s debate, candidates from the tickets Our Scarlet Promise and The New Leaf Coalition each shared their group’s plans for solving University issues.

Malachi Sutton, a School of Arts and Sciences junior and presidential candidate from The New Leaf Coalition, said they want to improve outreach to the student body by ensuring that different cultural organizations and clubs have input in the legislation that the Assembly passes.

Additionally, they said they want to increase the organization’s transparency by updating their website with legislation, meeting notes and student feedback forms.

“I think we have to start thinking in the future in terms of how we plan on communicating with the Rutgers student body instead of staying in the past,” Sutton said.

Ameel Jani, a School of Arts and Sciences junior and vice presidential candidate from The New Leaf Coalition, added that the ticket seeks to utilize resources such as Instagram direct messaging and listservs to reach out to more Rutgers organizations.

As Our Scarlet Promise’s presidential candidate, School of Arts and Sciences junior Allison Smith said she wants to improve communication with the student body, maintain an active and consistent social media and perform in-person outreach through tabling events.

She also elaborated on her position regarding increasing funding with cultural organizations on campus, citing her experience working in the University’s Office of Student Involvement and Leadership.

Smith said the amount of clubs at Rutgers is increasing each semester and that funding for these organizations is based primarily on need, rather than content.

She said while cultural organizations serve an important role in the University, she does not want to prioritize funding for certain groups and cut funding from others.

“I don't want to just sit up here and say to you that one club is going to get more funding than the other — we have to prioritize clubs that really need it,” Smith said.  “A lot of the most-funded clubs actually are cultural (organizations), and assuming that we're able to fund them just as much or more, we would love to, and we would want to — it's just (whether) we have the means to do it.”

Lara Fougnies, a School of Arts and Sciences junior and Our Scarlet Promise’s vice presidential candidate, added that the Assembly’s allocation guidelines disallow for certain organizations to be given more funding over others based on their content.

On the same topic, Sutton said that while they understand that there are concerns about the financial constraints of increasing funds to cultural organizations, they believe that the Assembly can work with University administration to find new pathways to provide more funding to such groups.

When discussing transportation, Sutton said that they want to combat congestion within the Rutgers bus system by adding more buses to the University fleet and more stops to certain bus routes. In addition, Jani said that he wants to build more commuter parking spaces near main campus facilities.

Smith said she wants to work with University administration to decrease the cost of commuter parking spaces, while Fougnies said she hopes to improve issues that are tangentially related to Rutgers transportation such as campus lighting at night and the blue light emergency system.

The candidates also addressed issues within the Assembly including problems surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion.

Sutton said that they believe the Assembly’s issue with discrimination is more systemic rather than based on individuals and needs to be addressed as such. They said that the organization needs to take accountability for itself and move forward by installing a more positive work culture.

“It's just not good enough to say that discrimination is bad, and toxicity is bad,” Sutton said. “We have to make an active effort and (hold) members within the Assembly accountable and (hold) ourselves as an organization accountable for those mishaps.”

Smith said that her ticket has been developing a policy initiative meant to install a system of accountability within the Assembly to better deal with acts of discrimination and micro-aggressions.

She said the accountability infrastructure will take form as a diversity, equity and inclusion department presided over by an appointed member of the Assembly's judicial council and an internally elected member of the Assembly.

Fougnies said the system will allow the Assembly to remove a member if there are any multiple complaints of discrimination against the individual, which allows the body to take action on issues rather than dwell on conflicting statements.

In closing, Smith noted her appreciation for the University as a third-generation Rutgers student and said she is excited about her ticket’s platform. In regard to their ticket’s platform, Sutton said they want to fix long-standing issues at the University and make an active effort to solve problems that affect the student body. Voting opens today for the Assembly’s spring election and closes this Thursday, according to the organization’s social media.