Voting for Lola continues today. Turnout numbers from Tuesday don’t look too bad. Of course, I’d like to see 100% turnout.

I’ll take this site in a different direction, now that I’m a Senator-elect and there’s only one day left in the run-off: I’ll keep this site active and use it as a way to communicate with my constituents.

Followers of UF SG may be familiar with the proliferation of SG blogs. Written by SG insiders (Senators and political junkies), they disappear as quickly as they pop up. I hesitate to link to any because they really last so shortly. They’re all written under noms de plume (maybe noms de guerre is more appropriate for some), with the exception of alums Ken Kerns and Christian Duque. In fact, considerable speculation often focuses on the identity of authors; others are openly known within their circle of (SG) friends. I am stickler for openness and transparency, so naturally I’m no fan of the psuedonyms — it even seems a bit elitest at times — but I understand the reasons for the secrecy. The SG blogs mostly focus on the politics of SG.

Politics is a touchy subject, and not one that really interests me much. I gain little by writing about politics, and risk offending everyone and their mother. So, if you want to talk politics, contact me. Rather, I’ll use this blog to write about policy and what I’m doing in the Senate — so my constituents can keep tabs on their representative in Student Government.

Before I start that, however, I’ll make a comment about the Gainesville city commission election. I imagine student turnout was low, as usual. Too many students simply don’t know there’s an election, where or how to vote, or what the issues in city government are. That’s a shame, because local government makes a lot of decisions that affect students, and any lobbying is ineffective if the commissioners know students don’t vote. I’m hopeful that the presence of Jeanna Mastrodicasa, honors program associate director, on the ballot may have brought more students to the polls. To my knowledge, Jeanna is popular among UF faculty and students, especially Honors students. I found her affable and down-to-earth in the times I met her. But Jeanna could not singlehandedly reverse a history of student voter apathy. Hell, if we couldn’t come out to vote for Mike Belle, an actual student, I’m not sure who could bring us out.

I hope SG can better address voter education in future local elections, but I’m sure I’ll write more about that later. For now, I’ll congratulate Jeanna on her win — against an opponent whose platform could, I believe, be fairly described as anti-student. I’ll also note the overall turnout numbers: 10,946 total votes cast. That’s 16.34% of the voters registered in Gainesville.

The turnout in last week’s SG election was a higher percentage than that — around 20% — and the raw numbers weren’t far behind — around 10,100, as I recall. In other words, an SG election saw similar levels of participation as an entire city commission race. Again, I want to see 100% voting in every election, but I think the numbers show that SG is not as disconnected and irrelevant as many claim. With that said: We’ve got work to do on both fronts.

Returning to the Senate, I went to my first session as Senator-elect tonight. Truth be told, I’ve only been to one full meeting of the Senate previously, and another for the first 45 minutes. That’s not much, but it’s more than many of the Senators-elect, who have never attended, ever. Furthermore, in my previous trips to the Senate, I probably talked more than many of the sitting Senators. And while some incoming Senators may have no experience in the Senate, if they’re familiar with parliamentary procedure, that’s a big leg up. So numbers may not tell the whole story here.

Anyway, today was my first night as Senator-elect. I came, in part, to learn a bit more about the operation of Senate. I also came to speak on behalf of a resolution by Human Rights Awareness on Campus condeming the genocide in Darfur. When it was my turn to speak in public debate, Senate President John Boyles accidentally called me “Senator Baker”. It made me happy. I’ll return to the Darfur resolution in a bit.

The most memorable part of public debate would have to be the discourse between Sens. Fei Long and Mike Bowen. Bowen is a graduate senator; Fei Long represents Family Housing. Fei Long is actually the only international student in the current Senate. The two have worked together in GPSC, the Graduate & Professional Senate Caucus, a semi-formal caucus of graduate and professional student representatives. Well, Fei Long will not be the only international student in the incoming senate — the graduate seats went overwhelmingly to international students. Sens. Jeremiah Blanchard and Chris “Tof” Ecklund, who have been very active advocates in the current Senate, lost their bids for re-election to their graduate seats — they’re domestic students. There is a bit of politics here, which I won’t go into because I don’t really know the story, but after the election, Bowen made some comments which I don’t consider to be offensive, but I can see how they might be interpreted as insensitive. Without having read the actual email myself, I think a fair summary of the situation would be that Bowen essentially commented that it seemed international students would only vote for themselves, and wondered aloud whether domestic and international graduate students would have to fight each other for representation. I hope I’m being fair here. Fei Long took it as an attack on international students — who certainly have had a real struggle for representation in Student Government. All of this happened previously — in public debate tonight, each essentially reiterating his position, with Fei Long resigning his Gator Party affiliation (to independent) and Bowen stating that he is not discriminatory against international students.

Notable moments from committee reports:

• During the report from the Rules & Ethics committee, which handles Senators’ absences, there was a bit of a flare-up over attendance requirements. Quick background: All Senators are required to attend sessions of Senate, other than excused absences, or face being removed from the Senate. One Senator’s absence — I don’t know her name yet — was declared unexcused, which she contested. There was an issue in the nature of the meeting missed: a special session (an emergency meeting to fix budget flaws) as opposed to a regular session; apparently the law outlines acceptable excuses for regular sessions but not special sessions. On the other hand was the question of whether she missed the meeting for a valid “academic reason”: a Panhellenic Council meeting. I don’t know enough about the rules to say much about it, but it was a minor controversy, at least.
• During the report from the Information & Communication committee, chair Tanaz Vaghaiwalla recognized the Senators who had birthdays this week. On the other hand, Senate President Boyles told me previously that I&C would be communicating with the incoming Senators about the transition into Senate — a communication that has not yet happened, and in fact, I’ve had a few of our Unite Senators-elect ask me when we would be confirmed by the Senate. I will assume that communication is forthcoming — incoming Senators won’t sit until after Spring Break — but it seems amiss that we haven’t heard anything since the results last Wednesday night.

One item from Senate tonight that could become a big issue was the Cabinet Restructuring Act. Backed by Student Body Vice President Joyce Medina, the bill proposes to cut the number of SG cabinets and change the powers of the cabinet directors and assistant directors. It passed first reading handily last week, but ran into some issues this week. Here’s the Alligator’s take on the affair.

It’s getting rather late, so I’ll have to continue my thoughts on the cabinet restructuring and the Darfur resolution tomorrow. I have a lot to say about both, so I want to be able to devote my full attention — which I can’t do now, because I’m exhausted.

I’ll also comment on my column published in the Alligator yesterday, as well as the issue of write-in candidates in the Student Body Treasurer run-off election (I’m quoted in a story in today’s Alligator).