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Recently Youth for
Socialist Action initiated a progressive slate of candidates for the
student senate at the University of Wiscoinsin-Superior. The
candidates were YSAer Tess Moren for At-Large, YSAer Lucas A. Dietsche for
History-Politics-Sociology and Amesty International Tegan Wendland
for At-Large. Their slate was Campus Alternative Ticket and the
symbol the cat. In the end Lucas and Tegan were successfully elected
to senate and Tess was five votes short of winning.
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 SA: What is the Campus Alternative Ticket (C.A.T.)?
Lucas A. Dietsche
(LAD): The Student Senate has
not been the voice to campus and has failed at common goals. We
decided to try something different, the difference being that we would run
as a platform with ideas. Since we are activists that have been constantly
badgering our student senate to take action on student issues and be the
trumpet of the students. Tegan Wendland (TW): Personally I was
disgruntled by the non-communicatory acts of our current student senate and
the fact that the senate is so totally elitist.
SA: Is there anything that you feel the campaign
could have done differently to be more effective?
Tess Moren (TM): I wish we could have reached more people.
We also had a hard time at the student senate debates because all of the
questions the student government bureaucrats insisted on asking were hard
to relate to the focus of our campaign – like fighting the tuition hikes
and getting the senate to be more political. LAD: But we did
get our campaign message across when Tegan went to a faculty union meeting
to represent students at the same time while Tess and I were at the student
senate debate.
SA: What do you think were the campaign’s strong
points?
TM: The posters were really effective, especially
our cat emblem and our seven-point platform, which were everywhere.
Unlike other campaigns which just said generic things, like, “we fight for
students,” we actually had a platform that said what we stood for. LAD:
People liked the cat. They liked what the cat stood for.
SA: How did students respond to the campaign?
LAD: I think we really stood out, plus our posters
and fliers were everywhere on campus. TW: The campaigning efforts of
other senatorial and presidential candidates paled in comparison to our
brilliant ploy. Many of their posters presented merely broad sweeping
claims such as “Experience with a Vision,” “Unity Leadership” and some just
presented ridiculous cartoon characters. Our campaign really had some
substance.
SA: How did the bureaucrats respond to your
campaigning efforts and consequent election?
LAD: I took the great time and effort to draw all of
our faces on a poster which I hung in an academic building, to find the
following day that someone had actually torn the faces off. I guess they
didn’t take our platform at face-value…ha ha. TW: I felt kind of
ignored. There was a sense of competition between the other candidates,
both senatorial and presidential, while we endorsed no one but our own
platform.
SA: What are the seven points on your program,
and why do you feel they were so important to your election victory?
LAD, TM, TW: 1. Our main goal is stressing direct student
representation, to have open discussion and dialogue between students and
senate.
2. We are for the
freezing and reversing of the tuition hikes.
3. We are for cultural
diversity, language programs and support International students and
programs.
4. We are for a more
equitable distribution of student organization funs.
5. We want the student
senate to pass resolutions and take action on more campus, local, national
and international issues.
6. We are for an
alliance of faculty, staff and students.
7.We are against the war
in Iraq,
demand that the troops be brought home now, and that the money being spent
on war be spent on education.
TW: The seven points clearly sum it up.
We’ve got a document that people can hold us to. LAD: It gives
people a reference to make sure we’re on task.
SA: What struggles do you think you will
encounter with your future in the senate?
TW: I feel kinda empty…like we’ll be there,
but we won’t be a part of the group. I feel like it will be a constant struggle for us even though
we’ve been elected because we’re separate from the rest of the senate.
Being on senate is a huge opportunity for us to gain more respect and
legitimacy in our progressive student projects (such as rallies, protests
and demonstrations). LAD: We’re not senate bureaucrats;
we’re socialist activists. I’m not into the ‘Robert’s Rules.’
I’m not used to their bureaucracy. I’m a poet, not a
politician. It will take a little adjusting. I’m used to being
a fireball and attacking the senate and administration and from a senate
seat I’ll have to keep doing it, but from the inside.
SA: Any final thoughts you want to share with
our readers?
LAD: I think that people voted for us because how I
see it as they want an alternative way to the status quo by giving us a
chance. They know that we communicate with students by telling
them about administration and senate, and will continue that with a seat in
senate!!
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