Polity Elections Education Rally
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Vol. XVII No. 12 We Fear No Beer March 25, 1996 k '*'·z~~t;9 ~:':"·-.~d . '4;`-~· 4~" o::::: i::. * ~38~"P~l~m ~B~b~n~ah~i~aarrr4Cpesli~ r~e~·C8s~s~%rr~e~l3~se~aase~hasls~i~a Polity Education Elections Rally Pg.2 g. pg. 2&7 nas~8~seplg~weEle~s~wPrra~e~srsl~ ~a~a~as~c~t~ar~ Po) 1 i t y E e C.t i O n s By Heather Rosenow Kedar in that she is very much a part of POLITY and its athletic teams, cultural organizations, fraternities, and workings. She has been Secretary of POLITY for over sororities. I feel that this contact will help me once I Election time, Stony Brook style. Welcome friends a semester, is sitting on the Board of Directors for start working on different issues within POLITY. I'll be and foes to the Stony Brook POLITY Presidential USSA, and is Chair of the Board of Directors of SASU. able to get a larger turnout of people for different events Elections. Our candidates this year are Kedar Dasai and She has held the title of President of The Center for and rallies." Keren Zolotov. I interviewed both of the lovely politi- Womyn's Concerns, and a member of the swimming Q: Name the issues both on and off campus that you cians-to-be and got some interesting results. Initially team. Her campaign platform is broken up into two feel are most pressing for POLITY to deal with ? they were wary of me, representative of the demon major halves; Student Services and Advocacy. The Kedar: "Bridging the community...if you don't have a press that I am, but eventually both came to realize that advocacy half involves fighting budget cuts (which she strong bond as far as all the students on campus go, you I'm relatively harmless. First to be interviewed was ranks as very important). When speaking of this she can't really get important issues [brought up] because a Kedar Dasai, a newcomer to the student government said " It is important for me to make a presentation and lot of people feel [that] they're not being represented. scene. The mainstay of his presidential platform is show how the budget cuts are going to affect people." An improved communication between faculty, com- based on the fact that he is not part of the established The Student Services area of her campaign centers muters, and residents is needed. After the bridge is governmental system. He feels he would bring a fresh around her desire to found a committee which would accomplished, everything else will come from that." perspective to the somewhat stagnate ranks of POLITY, serve as a bridge between the various organizations on Keren: "The budget cuts on both state and federal lev- Stony Brook's student government organization. He campus and POLITY. els...and financial aid, which is essential. Campus safe- says, "The thing is, if you're set in POLITY, always Both candidates were asked the same questions and ty, more unified wide spread events in terms of a lot having been an officer with them, you tend to side with were informed that the interview was on the record. more club sponsorships from many organizations and them because then you'll get their support. But once The following are the questions I asked, and the not just two or three. Get the word out, a lot of people you get into office you don't get to change much answers I received. don't know what POLITY is all about. In terms of the because you've always stayed with the status quo; this Q: What do you feel you can specially bring to POLI- LEG's, [they] need to come together more often in is where an outsider's view comes in handy." TY as president? some sort of forum and start working, not just as indi- Another of his major campaign issues is the lack of Kedar: "I would try a new approach to things because vidual buildings or constituencies, but all together." communication between the commuters and residents it's not like everyone in POLITY is my pal. Everybody within the Stony Brook community. He feels that it is Q: How do you plan on accessing the generally has to watch their backs because what [we're] dealing apathetic consciousness of the average Stony necessary to build a "Communication Bridge" between with is student finances. The students are the ones pay- these two groups on campus if anything else is to be Brook student? ing, and they're the ones who should be getting served Kedar: "It's really hard to do as far as you can only try accomplished. His experience in the past includes 'If you support me the most. Instead of just saying so much and put so many flyers out there...a lot of being a senator for POLITY in his freshman year now, I'll support you later,'...I'd like to break away (though he mentioned he didn't like attending meet- these things get ignored so we'd have to start at a real- from that trend. All the committees seem to be running ly basic level such as residential systems, RHD's, and ings; too dull perhaps), President of Hendrix and that way now. Opinions should be stressed more; stu- Cordozo colleges his freshman and sophomore years LEG's . But that's something really hard to promise. dent leaders like RA's and SASU should be given more You can't really change people over the course of a respectively, and 3 year representative of the Honors leeway to solicit student information." College. Presently he is an RA in Hand College and sits semester of even over the course of a year. That's Keren: "My biggest strength is my grass roots connec- something I can't give a defi- in a senior chair in his Fraternity. tions on campus. I've been in really good contact with Keren Zolotov happens to be exactly the opposite of nite answer to." continued on page 9 Pataki! You Liar! We'll Set Your Ass on Fire! By Joanna Wegielnik ordinarily, well, per capita gross domestic product elementary, junior and senior high schools across climbs every year, the obscene stratification of the state a $490 million reduction in state aid, mak- This past Thursday I was witness to what one of wealth continues, middle and low income families ing what is already a dire situation in many class- my editors called "a typical USB student body continue to see their standard of living and wages rooms worse. Also, every college, in both the state turnout." The event in question was the Teach Out- decline, and our tuition steadily increases from and city system, faces substantial faculty layoffs. Rally, protesting Governor Pataki's latest assault on semester to semester outpacing the inflation rate. Not only is tuition being hiked again, from $250 in SUNY and education in the state of most SUNY schools to $700 at some city col- New York. Although a small energetic I leges, financial aid is being cut drastically, group of students and host of speakers with a $119 million cut to the Tuition did their best to interest curious onlook- Assistance Program (TAP), state aid which ers and a generally unresponsive makes higher education accessible to many crowd, attendance dwindled to perhaps lower income students. And it is these stu- 200-300 people out of 19,000. This is dents, the ones who can least afford a col- rather disturbing, considering what's at lege education, who will be hit hardest by stake; your own education and the this budget. Aid will be cut by as much as future of this university. $1,170 per person for the state's 144,000 Governor Pataki's 1996-97 proposed poorest students. The cut also includes a budget continues what is the worst plan which would stop the disbursement of attack on education, health care, and TAP awards to students from families with social programs New York has seen in incomes that exceed $38,000, making it the last twenty years. The budget clos- more difficult for middle income families to es a projected gap of 3.9 billion dollars. send their kids to college. Also included in Incidentally, 97.4% of this $3.9 billion the proposed budget, is a new TAP formula deficit is due to tax cuts, tax cuts that which would reduce TAP awards to SUNY primarily benefit the wealthiest New students by 50% of their PELL award, Yorkers.A 40% of the savings in this budget will go Last year's Theatre students at the Staller Pit which means that 5Uo ot a students VtLL award to the 5% of taxpayers whose annual incomes $750 tuition will now go towards paying tuition. Currently, exceed $100,000, continuing a trend which in the hike was devastating to many students and was part- PELL awards can be used to pay other incurred last twenty years, has made the poorest 20% of ly responsible for a combined enrollment drop of expenses such as room, board, meal plans, books, New Yorkers 10% poorer, while the richest 1% 16,000 students in both the CUNY and SUNY sys- car insurance, transportation, etc. By applying 50% have become 105% richer. tems. Many of you who survived the last round of of PELL towards the payment of tuition, many stu- While what is taking place in New York is alarm- cuts might have to drop out this time around if dents, again especially lower income, will no longer ing, it's far from unique.