2016-2017 USG Elections: A Hunter Alliance

With the mixed feelings surrounding the Hunter College Undergraduate Student Government (USG), the 2016-2017 Hunter Undergraduate Student Government (USG) election is quickly proving to be one of the most exciting election seasons. With three organized parties running for the first time – along with a number of independent candidates – the race will prove to be different from and more expansive than those held in previous years.

A Hunter Alliance is one of these three parties running this year. Taken from their Facebook group page (hyperlinked and linked below), the main message of Alliance – “We want to streamline student government to better work for everyone at Hunter” – relates to the mixed approval of the 2015-2016 USG administration.

Alliance’s platform is based on three main concepts, or their 3 Cs: Community, Connectivity, and Clarity.

For them, Community means making Hunter College a more cohesive and warmer place for the large number of students, uniting them. By promoting Connectivity, Alliance hopes to make all aspects of Hunter more accessible to students, with USG especially being able to address all concerns and requests in a timely and clear manner. Through Clarity, Alliance believes that students should be in the loop at all times and must know anything that concerns them – in essence, increased transparency.

Apart from the emphasis on better and clearer communication, one of the main concepts powering A Hunter Alliance is Participatory Budgeting.

Peter Rostovsky, the candidate for Evening Affairs Commissioner – and one of the persons behind the project, provides a brief explanation: “The idea is that PB allows students to meet and brainstorm ideas on what needs to be funded in Hunter. Those ideas are then developed by involved students into concrete projects on how to make the school better. The development process is done in coordination with a committee representing different demographics in Hunter – the members will come from political organizations (like SODA), clubs, regular students, USG Commissioners etc. After the projects are finalized, the students vote on the ones that they value most and that’s when the funding gets distributed. In the end PB engages the student community and reduces the stress on the USG when it comes to project implementation! If developed properly, PB can assist the student body with event planning, fixing facilities that are not working and a myriad of other things.”

Their short mission statement on their Facebook page reads: “We are all students at Hunter who are unhappy with the way student government is currently run. There are issues with transparency, questions have been asked about budget issues, and answers have not been offered, and most students don’t know what student government can do for them besides provide free coffee and tea.

“We want to make student government more accessible by making it easier to talk with USG members. We will create a suggestion box so that students have an easy way to communicate their wants, needs, and concerns. We want to amend the USG constitution to better organize student government so that we can truly serve the students. We will make the constitution more available to the student body, and allow you to hold us accountable for representing you.

“If we work as allies we can build a stronger Hunter. You and me for HC!”

Candidate List:

Executive Board

President: Lucy Snyder
Vice President: Leslie Kristine Wong
External Affairs/ Public Relations Commissioner: Demi Alexis Moore
Student Welfare/ Academic Affairs Commissioner: Nicole Krishtul
Cultural Affairs/ Student Activities Commissioner: Sapna Punj
Evening Affairs Comissioner: Peter Rostovsky