The role of the executive secretary requires a person who is above all honest, transparent, detail-oriented and accountable to students. While past executive secretaries have taken it upon themselves to run student programming, we believe that it is most important for this person to fulfill the record-keeping and publicizing duties of this role first, and leave the programming to the variety of other SGA officers who are elected and appointed to run it.
On this basis and after interviewing both candidates, the CW Editorial Board endorses Kelsi Long for executive secretary of the SGA. Long is both a suitable candidate for this position and by far the more qualified candidate of the two contesting this race.
Long meets all of our criteria for executive secretary. She was one of if not the most honest and forthright candidates we interviewed in this process. She has taken multiple steps during her time as a senator for the Culverhouse College to seek out and include student opinions in her decision-making process. She has also made using “Say Hey, SGA” as a chance to gather student opinions on senate legislation a priority on her platform. Based on her track record of implementation as a senator and officer in a number of campus organizations, we believe she’ll follow through on this and many other promises she makes to students.
Long’s platform is not without its weaknesses. Her plans to incentivize physical fitness and health at the University, while interesting and feasible, have little to do with the job of executive secretary. We believe this program is better left to the vice president of Student Affairs or director of Programming and Advancement. She also has plans to work with the SOURCE on the management of student organizations, which, as a full-time student, she should shy away from pursuing. Executive secretary is too big of a job to be taking on other cabinet members’ or UA departments’ work as well.
The CW Editorial Board does not believe Claire Parker is suited for the job of executive secretary because of her failure to be transparent about her endorsements and accountable for her actions, while simultaneously preaching transparency and accountability for the SGA. After she repeatedly insisted that she “will not be answering the question” of whether or not she is endorsed by the Machine, we doubt she knows the definition of transparency or accountability. A student who cannot honestly answer a question in front of seven of their peers, particularly a question to which the answer is already known, does not deserve to be put in charge of keeping the SGA honest.
For these reasons, the CW Editorial Board endorses Kelsi Long for executive secretary.
Our View represents the consensus of The Crimson White Editorial Board.
