Over the last year, the student senate has focused much of its attention on itself and on Student Government. Rather than discuss the issues facing the student body, senate spent countless hours on internal issues.
And there was a need to talk about how senate and Student Government could work better — how to get more students involved, how to retain them and how to be more effective as a governing body.
However, as SG starts thinking about a new year, it’s time to put senate’s attention back on what matters to students. The vice president who presides over senate this coming term will need an external focus to make that happen.
That’s why we are endorsing Donnie Iorio for the job.
Iorio’s platform has three central focuses: academics, safety and student engagement. Each is a big, and complicated, problem that faces SG and the student body. Each has been discussed by SG candidates many times before.
But Iorio’s ideas are feasible, and they could make an impact.
He suggests making USC police more visible and having shuttles run later on exam weeks. He suggests adding a question to course evaluations that asks how necessary textbooks are (and publishing the answers) and publishing all courses’ syllabi. And he suggests opening the floor of senate to the public for a few minutes every week.
Where many SG candidates over the years have reached too far, proposing programs that are too lofty or ambitious, or done too little to improve student life, Iorio seems to have found a balance.
He’s also exceptionally familiar with SG’s codes and history. As chief justice, he conducted a legislative audit and helped review all of senate’s legislation, all the way back into the 1980s.
Iorio’s opponent, David Leggett, has amassed significant experience, and his candidacy raises good points: SG needs to do a better job of representing students to the administration. Discussion about new initiatives should happen out in the open, so students can stay informed and issues can be raised sooner than later. And SG doesn’t interact with student organizations nearly as well as it ought to.
Those are issues that have long plagued SG, and whoever is elected vice president should work with the hope of remedying them in mind.
Iorio has a diverse résumé that stretches beyond Student Government, and that’s encouraging, because it means he won’t be bogged down by a focus on internal restructuring.
There was a need for that, but now, it’s time to move on.