Candidates Want Student Voice in Campus Policy

Facing threats of losing final exam prep days and an earlier drop deadline, the three academic affairs vice president candidates are making campaign promises to ensure student input is heard, not overlooked by the university administration, to win next week's elections starting Tuesday.

The academic affairs vice president is the point person for voicing student interests to the administration.

He or she chooses the dozens of student representatives to faculty and executive committees, and lobbies campus officials on university policy. The vice president also oversees CalFacts, an online course review database recently turned into a student portal, located at one.berkeley.edu.

When Student Action candidate Rocky Gade ran for senate last year, he was one of the party's most public critics as a founder of the independent Fresno Party.

But this year, Gade abandoned those roots and jumped onto the political powerhouse's slate.

Gade said his independent beginnings could redefine the party and alleviate partisan politics in the ASUC.

"We're really transforming the party-bringing a new outlook, a new paradigm to the whole concept of the ASUC party system," Gade said. "The bipartisanship really cripples the ASUC, and we need to change that."

His platform focuses on what he says are a few modest but feasible projects that will last well into the future. He wants to revamp the class webcast system, which he said is necessary but overlooked in such a large university, particularly with forthcoming budget cuts.

"There are going to be obstacles, but it's just a question of how we solve them and work around them," he said.

He said he is willing to work with the administration to find alternative drop deadline policies that help maintain room for students in introductory courses but also give students flexibility with their schedules. To establish his goals, Gade wants to work collaboratively with the administration, instead of attacking it as an obstacle.

"I want to establish networks with the university and alumni that are going to bring the best possible outcomes to the students, not just fight the current system," he said.

CalSERVE candidate Mike Sheen wants to bring student services directly to the students by transforming Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Union.

"We need to create a space so students feel like it's theirs," he said. "With so many students moving out of Berkeley, their time on campus is crucial."

As chief of staff under ASUC External Affairs Vice President Anu Joshi, Sheen has worked with several city committees, which he said is analogous to the committee system at the university.

He said this experience has prepared him to work with the Academic Senate, the faculty's decision-making body.

Through this committee work, Sheen hopes to create a more tight-knit campus and intellectual community.

"I want to reconnect faculty with students and bring folks together," he said.

Sheen said the academic calendar issue earlier this year, in which the university cut two final exam preparation days, is indicative of a greater problem at the university.

"This is not a singular issue-we need to re-evaluate the way we do enrollment, not as one line item. We need to look at things from a holistic point of view," he said.

While other candidates are intensely focused on saving dead days and the eighth-week drop deadline, Squelch! candidate Matt Holohan wants more academic affairs-the libidinous kind, that is.

"Sexual freedom is important, and when it comes to consenting adults, relationships should be allowed," he said.

As a second-year Boalt Hall law student, Holohan said he feels a special responsibility to repeal a ban instated last year on faculty-student relationships.

"I'm soon to be a litigator, so I think I can be a good advocate on behalf of students," he said.

Holohan ran for Student Advocate two years ago as a graduating senior and won, but resigned immediately since he was not able to serve.

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