Team Yellow: Vote Bright Interview
“Realistic, Inclusive and Ambitious” were the three words presidential candidate Laura Ortega gave to describe team yellow’s campaign and goals and promises for the current student government election process, this past week. During this interview Laura explored her, and her team’s, motivations for running for office, as well as an in depth look at the policy proposals Laura, and her team thinks will make a positive impact on the student body’s university experience. While Yellow’s approach to the campaign can be summarized in three words, their policy proposals and initiatives cannot; This brief overview of the interview seeks to improve university life as a whole through a realistic approach to academic reform, an exclusive look at cross campus connection, and an ambitious approach to creating a line of dialogue between the administration and the student body as a whole.
It is Team Yellow’s view that they will be able to take the necessary steps to achieve their goals through the most effective channels possible. Having been consistently involved in both the nuances of the University’s administration, as well as a myriad of student life activities. In Laura’s view, Team Yellow is in a unique position when it comes to an understanding of the inner workings of the university’s institutions; Laura was originally a member of the communications committee, until she ultimately became the director of said committee this year. This position has allowed her to have in depth knowledge of the nuances of the administrative process: simply put, she knows how the show is run. In this regard, as per Laura’s responses, Yellow is uniquely poised to undertake their policy proposals with an acute knowledge of exactly what is possible and what is not.
This understanding of the university and the bureaucracy found therein has translated very well to the first word used to describe Team Yellow, according to Laura: “Realistic”. Team Yellow prides itself in putting forth proposals, however small, that will be easily attainable and visible to the student body. This approach was evident when conversing with Laura on the topic of academics. Take for instance the issue of attendance, there is a wide discrepancy in how teachers approach the attendance policy as it relates to participation. Traditionally it is up to the teacher’s discretion to decide how exactly to evaluate each individual’s student’s involvement in class; while this model may be functional, and indeed effective, in smaller classes when a teacher has 30+ students in one classroom it becomes attractive to equate one’s participation to one’s attendance.
Laura presented me with a simple, and costless, solution to this issue which affects all degrees: “Standardization”. By making it such that all teachers have a unified guideline to evaluate participation, students will have a better understanding of the evaluation criteria. Even if this standardization leads to equating attendance to participation, students will be in a better position when it comes to understanding how their participation will be graded.
This idea of “transparency” also translates over to another initiative Laura and I discussed, informative sessions on seminars. This policy proposal revolves around making sure that students know what they are getting themselves into when signing up for a seminar. By working in conjunction with preexisting university institutions one idea to do this would be through a seminar fair of sorts, where students can go and meet their potential professors to understand the expectations of these courses, such that students can make the most informed decision when signing up.
One of the last things Laura and I discussed related to the teachers themselves, namely revising the evaluation of teachers with regards to their level of English. Laura pointed out a very important distinction during our interview, namely that “speaking is not the same as teaching” in English. This goal once again goes to the goal of standardization. Laura presented a simple and once again cost less plan for addressing this issue which can best be described as teacher supervision.
During each new teacher’s first semester another teacher, or member of an academic office, could step in and evaluate the dominance of the language in class. Overall, with regards to academics Laura commented on policies that she views as “realistic” which seek to improve “transparency” through “standardization”.
With regards to community development Laura commented on the ever looming issue of the Madrid-Segovia divide. In our discussion Laura put forth a number of initiatives when it comes to fostering community and attempting to breach the gap. First and foremost there is the issue of Spring Ball; If elected Yellow seeks to make this event bigger and thereby making it possible for more students from both campuses to attend. The way this would be done would be by working in conjunction with student initiatives (namely Flanda) as a means of getting the best deals for the highest number of people. Laura commented that “Spring ball is one of the only opportunities for both campuses to meet, so it is important to make sure many people can go”.
Laura also commented on a number of other plans she has to foster community development. Take for instance Yellow’s competition initiatives; Both in academics and in sports Laura seeks to implement friendly competitions so that students from both campuses have a forum for interaction. For academics this would come in the form of Skype debates, which Laura hopes will be endorsed by staff and the administration; With regards to athletics this would come from working closely with IE athletics.
Perhaps the most ambitious idea Laura presented me with was the possibility of IE sponsored shuttles between campuses. While there is an abundance of buses between Madrid and Segovia, Yellow seeks to breach the divide by making it easy and affordable for students to move between campuses. Again this is a rather ambitious idea but Yellow will be steadfast about making this a reality to make both campuses as united as possible, as per Laura. Laura assures us that Yellow will do everything possible to make both campuses closer, yet she acknowledges that there is only so much that can be done from an institutional level. Ultimately it is Yellow’s goal to improve yet not solve the Madrid-Segovia dilemma by presenting as many opportunities as possible for students to interact with each other.
Last and certainly not least is Yellow’s approach to creating an effective line of communication between the university and the student body as a whole. Perhaps the most ambitious of these proposals is increasing the roles of both committees, but most importantly class reps. There are a lot of issues within classes and within the university as a whole and it is very hard to address them as they are happening with one meeting every couple months: “it is our goal to address issues as they are happening”, said Laura.
To this end Yellow proposes an increase in class rep meetings with the individual class departments, but more importantly creating a connection between the reps and the committees. By consolidating both of these pre existing institutions, Yellow seeks to make the students’ voices heard, such that problems can be resolved as fast as possible. This also goes to the issue of communication between the SG and the Student body; Laura plans to continue the “keeping up with the SG” videos started by the current administration, but plans to extend them so that students know exactly how much progress has been made with regards to proposals.
Yellow also plans to work with the Stork, creating periodic informative content such that students can be as informed as possible. The main goal for yellow in this regard can best be summarized in two words: transparency and accountability. This is all in hopes that at the end of their tenure the student body will know what was and what was not possible in detail.
It is the view of presidential hopeful Laura Ortega that by this time this year there will have been at least some improvements in the fields mentioned above, such that the student body can have the most amazing university experience possible.
Make sure to keep checking The Stork for all your updates on this year’s Student Government elections!
