Throughout this campaign, I’ve introduced myself to probably hundreds of people who didn’t know me previously. But whether campaigning in public or introducing myself at student organizations’ meetings, I have precious little time to convince my audience why they should vote for me and the Unite Party. Clubs want to get on with their meetings, people want to get to class or wherever they’re going, so while I do what I can to give people a chance to meet me and voice whatever questions or concerns they have, I have to be realistic: voter turnout last year was less than 20%. Most students just don’t care.

While I’d love to convince all 48,000 UF students to care enough to vote, few of them will give me more than a minute or so to do so. So I focus on the basics, trying to highlight our qualities that I think will most resonate with them: openness. Accessibility. A commitment to positive change. An ambitious but realistic platform. The most diverse candidates.

On this site, however, I get to talk about what I want. And one of the key reasons I think students should care about this election is technology.

Tech matters. And it matters more right now than maybe ever before.

ICARUS still prowls the campus housing network, shutting down anyone who uses peer-to-peer technology, regardless of the purpose — and even harmless users of IRC chat.

Students still complain about downtime on WebMail. Meanwhile, UF tech staff complain that students aren’t switching away from WebMail to get their email via standalone programs like Mozilla Thunderbird. But they’ve done little to help students move away from WebMail. The server load remains high, and students still have trouble getting to WebMail when they need it.

Worse is that students never had a say in the decision to end forwarding of GatorLink email accounts that pushed everyone back to WebMail once they could no longer forward their mail to their Gmail or AOL account. The committee that made the decision, the IT Advisory Committee, is made up entirely of professors and administrators — no student sits on the ITAC.

When I learned that, I went into action. I didn’t need to be a Student Senator or a Cabinet Director to speak up — especially since apparently SG wasn’t doing its job to stick up for students. I wrote a letter which the Alligator published; I met with the head of IT to tell my concerns and ideas; and then, late last year, for the first time, students were able to apply for a seat on the committee, as well as its Academic Technology subcommittee. The appointment hasn’t been made yet, but we’re on our way to having a voice in such decisions in the future.

But two issues, above all others, make UF’s tech policy so relevant today:

1. The tech fee. The state Board of Governors, which oversees the Florida State University System, recently approved a technology fee for universities. The fee would be set by a committee at each university, composed of faculty and students, to pay for technology services at the university. Under the current proposal, the tech fee would not be covered by Bright Futures scholarships, which more than 90% of UF freshmen receive. The proposal must be approved by the Florida Legislature to be implemented. If passed by the Legislature, decisions made in the next year will have a large influence on the direction of the tech fee.
2. UF IT reorganization. Right now, UF’s IT services are being reorganized. IT services from across the university will be centralized and standardized. The exact form of the reorganization and the policies it implements will be decided to a great extent in the coming year.

In both cases, UF has an opportunity to improve the tech services it provides students, by increasing funding for IT and by using those funds more efficiently. But students can also get screwed if we don’t participate in the process.

The current Student Government has shown a real lack of leadership by not addressing these issues. The Swamp Party may have changed their name, but they are still the incumbents. Simply put, our opponents have dropped the ball on the important tech issues that affect students.

I and the Unite Party have the experience and the vision to lead on this important issue. We will ensure that students’ best interests are represented.