Executive Vice President: Candidates Want to Bridge Divides, Limit Partisanship

As campaigning heats up for the upcoming ASUC elections, the five candidates for executive vice president, which involves chairing ASUC Senate meetings and serving as the ASUC liaison to student groups, have been making an effort to connect with student voters.

Candidates have promised to clear the air in a notoriously partisan senate whose party politics have dragged meetings into the early morning. The candidates are also offering their own means to bridge the gap between student groups and administrators.

Ronald Cruz

Defend Affirmative Action Party

For DAAP's Ronald Cruz, activism is key in developing opinions on events important to the student body at a campus as politically charged as UC Berkeley.

(As) an activist for more than 10 years-including serving as chief administrator for BAMN and president and house manager of the Oscar Wilde House-Cruz said he is ready to "take the lead" to make Berkeley's student government reflect the campus's politically aware reputation.

"The ASUC needs to make those discussions happen so students have the power to accomplish things," he said. "The ASUC has to fight for the students' rights."

Vowing to keep the campus political process "as open as possible," Cruz plans to push the ASUC to encourage intelligent discussion of "real issues" like the Iraqi occupation and the civil rights movement on campus as well as creating a "real increase" in underrepresented minorities on campus.

Anil Daryani

Student Action

ASUC Senator Anil Daryani from Student Action is a fan of unity: of the student body, of student groups and of the ASUC Senate. As executive vice president, he would create an "efficient and accountable" senate, a connected campus community and a body of student groups who know how to use the resources available to them.

To keep the senate in check, Daryani plans to hold weekly meetings with senators to discuss their projects and campaign promises.

The sophomore, who is active in the Asian Business Association, Hindu Student Council, Delta Chi fraternity and other groups, points to his involvement with the Tsunami Relief Coalition as evidence of his ability to unify many student groups.

"We brought communities on campus together as a coalition," he said. "With so many groups breaking down barriers, we erased the tensions between a lot of groups. There is so much more power in unity."

Ben Narodick

SQUELCH!

SQUELCH!'s Ben "4sight not 4skin" Narodick is the first to describe himself as "experienced, knowledgeable, modest and well-hung ... intellectually speaking."

A first-time SQUELCH! senator infamous for reading his own haikus during meetings this year, Narodick, a sophomore, is aiming for an executive comeback to the ASUC under the slogan "empowerment, not bureaucracy." He says that student groups should do the ASUC's work because they are better qualified.

"Anything the ASUC can do, student groups can do better," he said. "Any group can run the bookswap without getting $6,000 stolen. Cal Dems and Berkeley College Republicans can get more people to a meeting about student fees than the ASUC ever could."

He added that once he uses his stipend to get plastic surgery, his number of friends on the Facebook will exceed current Executive Vice President Christine Lee's 1,049.

Camille Pannu

CalSERVE

One of CalSERVE's most ASUC- savvy executive candidates, junior Camille Pannu wants to fix "the true disconnect" between what the ASUC is capable of offering to students and what it actually accomplishes.

"We need to break out of this top-down mentality at the EVP office of ‘here's the group, why don't you do the work and we take the credit?'" she said. "We need to give ASUC back to the students."

Pannu, who has served as ASUC chief of staff of academic affairs and Hate Crimes Task Force chair, as well as signatory for Poetry for the People and the Sikh Student Association, said she knows the ASUC from both sides.

"It's difficult to cut red tape on campus while bringing diverse people together from different backgrounds," she said. "But what's most important is making this campus a student-owned space."

A lack of communication prevents groups from working together, Pannu said. She plans to repair that disconnect with a student-oriented student union.

Billy Wang

Independent

A well-known voice among the campus's Asian-American population, two-time senator Billy Wang said the ASUC is losing touch with the student body.

"It saddens me that only 25 percent of students vote," he said. "It seems that there's a general lack of student awareness of what the ASUC does. We're here to protect them."

Wang, a junior, left the Student Action party in a controversial move earlier this year. Now an independent, the former BEARS-United executive vice president candidate intends to train student groups to be self-sufficient from the ASUC while still "expanding the scope of the association's affiliation with them."

Wang said as executive vice president, he would work to expand space for student groups, create an "ASUC Senator Guide" for new senators and raise campus awareness of the ASUC.

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