ASUA Watch Independent, critical commentary and analysis of ASUA candidates and issues.

Saturday, February 26, 2005

Jacob Reuben responds with more in-depth platform

Jacob Reuben

Jacob Reuben was nice enough to respond to our analysis with a more in-depth platform. The platform is as follows.

Increase Safety on Campus
Safety has always been a concern for students on our campus. However, student leaders have not addressed the problems adequately. My plan is to create a security director inside the President’s Cabinet. This director would be the liaison between ASUA and other campus organizations dealing with safety such as UAPD, TPD, Risk Management, and the Administration. The director would also work within ASUA to make sure our programs are working to increase safety. Safe Ride could work more efficiently and Women’s Resource Center could have more crime prevention classes. Overall, I will work to make our university and surrounding neighborhoods a better environment for all of us.

Improve Registration Technology
Students are tired of classes being full when registering. We need to make sure class availability is a top priority. With an increase in revenues to our University, I promise to lobby for this money to be allocated to hire more professors and teacher assistants which would increase class availability. Students can not be held responsible to fulfill their academic requirements when they can not enroll in their necessary classes.

I also want to create a web-reg wait list. Similar programs have worked successfully at other campuses and a program needs to be implemented at our university. A wait list would give students the opportunity to monitor their status in a class that is full instead of the current system we have today. A wait list for classes would not only simplify the registration process for students, but would give a standard way of getting into a class for all students. No more picking out of hats by teachers on the first day of class for acceptance. A wait list would provide a fair, easy, and great solution to some of our registration problems. A problem today is when students are not enrolled in an adequate amount of credits even before the semester begins. A wait list would help alleviate this problem since it would give students a better opportunity to plan their next semester’s schedule.

Implement a Fall Break
All students would love to be able to get home a few days earlier during Thanksgiving break. As President, I would work with faculty, administration, and other groups on campus to lobby for an extended vacation during that period. Statistics have already shown that many students do not attend classes during that week and the university could potential save thousand of dollars if they close their doors. This issue is nothing new to the students. However, with my leadership, I hope to be able to find a compromise with the university officials and finally put Fall Break on the calendar!

Three positions still isn't a whole lot, but it is better than what we had before. I suggested that he post what's above, rather than what we had before, on his website.