Letters to the Editor
Issue date: 2/25/09 Section: Opinion
Respect ASG elections process
To the student body,
I am writing in response to Adam Roberts' column "Students, learn about your ASG candidates now."
While we appreciate and encourage students to learn about their Associated Student Government candidates, this article was premature and lacked important information.
There are currently no candidates for any ASG executive positions. The application period to run for office does not begin until next week. Applications will be available Monday, March 2, and are due by noon Wednesday, March 11.
Applicants also must be approved as eligible and attend candidate orientation before they can be placed on the ballot.
Please know that on March 30 all candidates will be announced and information about each of them will be found on the ASG Web site at http://asg.uark.edu; the Elections Committee will disseminate information about each candidate to as many listservs on campus as possible; and, typically, candidates will have Web sites and Facebook pages listing in detail information about their platforms and ideas. I encourage each voter to learn more about the candidates at that time.
Any student can still apply to run for any executive position, but no student may begin campaigning for office until March 30. This includes any announcement that they are running for office.
Roberts' editorial has put these students in the unfortunate position of being asked to discuss a potential campaign before they would be allowed to announce a candidacy, which is a violation of ASG election rules.
The actual elections for ASG executive office will occur April 6 through April 9. If there is a run-off, this election will be April 20 through April 22. Students can vote at http://vote.uark.edu.
I encourage each student to find out more about the candidates and be an informed voter. Until March 30, I ask the Traveler staff to respect the ASG elections process and hold their discussions of the ASG elections.
Yours truly,
Dayna Wolek
ASG adviser
Center for Leadership and Community Engagement
Off-Campus Housing assists UA students
The half-page, full-color ad entitled "Room4Rent" (Feb. 20) and the scant editorial did not mention the UA's own off-campus housing Web site.
The Off-Campus Housing Web site (http://offcampushousing.uark.edu) launched in March 2006 as the result of a partnership between UA's Off-Campus Connections and University Housing. The site globally serves current and prospective students, faculty, and staff and has received more than 2 million hits since its inception.
A simple search on the UA's home page will bring the site up immediately. It can be accessed through the index as well as numerous links from other UA sites.
As to points in the editorial:
"Off-campus housing has become a popular choice for many UA students." Sooner or later, all will eventually live off campus. Many students don't have the opportunity to live on campus (students with families, graduate students, etc.). Living off campus at some point isn't necessarily about choice (popular or not). It's a fact of life and one that we hope students try to prepare for as much as possible.
The UA requires freshmen under age 21 to live on campus unless they live with parents or family members. Your editorial states, "More and more students are finding loopholes in this rule..." Yet we know that the number of freshmen living off campus has declined in the past few years, as University Housing has added new residence halls and emphasized its program for first-year students.
"If UA officials were to create more perks and cheaper housing... Then, maybe, UA students would give residence halls a second look." With more than 10,000 undergraduate commuters, providing enough on-campus housing is not logical.
It's the mission of Off-Campus Connections to assist undergraduate students living off campus. We hope that this response will better inform the campus community.
Susan Stiers
Associate director
Off-Campus Connections
To the student body,
I am writing in response to Adam Roberts' column "Students, learn about your ASG candidates now."
While we appreciate and encourage students to learn about their Associated Student Government candidates, this article was premature and lacked important information.
There are currently no candidates for any ASG executive positions. The application period to run for office does not begin until next week. Applications will be available Monday, March 2, and are due by noon Wednesday, March 11.
Applicants also must be approved as eligible and attend candidate orientation before they can be placed on the ballot.
Please know that on March 30 all candidates will be announced and information about each of them will be found on the ASG Web site at http://asg.uark.edu; the Elections Committee will disseminate information about each candidate to as many listservs on campus as possible; and, typically, candidates will have Web sites and Facebook pages listing in detail information about their platforms and ideas. I encourage each voter to learn more about the candidates at that time.
Any student can still apply to run for any executive position, but no student may begin campaigning for office until March 30. This includes any announcement that they are running for office.
Roberts' editorial has put these students in the unfortunate position of being asked to discuss a potential campaign before they would be allowed to announce a candidacy, which is a violation of ASG election rules.
The actual elections for ASG executive office will occur April 6 through April 9. If there is a run-off, this election will be April 20 through April 22. Students can vote at http://vote.uark.edu.
I encourage each student to find out more about the candidates and be an informed voter. Until March 30, I ask the Traveler staff to respect the ASG elections process and hold their discussions of the ASG elections.
Yours truly,
Dayna Wolek
ASG adviser
Center for Leadership and Community Engagement
Off-Campus Housing assists UA students
The half-page, full-color ad entitled "Room4Rent" (Feb. 20) and the scant editorial did not mention the UA's own off-campus housing Web site.
The Off-Campus Housing Web site (http://offcampushousing.uark.edu) launched in March 2006 as the result of a partnership between UA's Off-Campus Connections and University Housing. The site globally serves current and prospective students, faculty, and staff and has received more than 2 million hits since its inception.
A simple search on the UA's home page will bring the site up immediately. It can be accessed through the index as well as numerous links from other UA sites.
As to points in the editorial:
"Off-campus housing has become a popular choice for many UA students." Sooner or later, all will eventually live off campus. Many students don't have the opportunity to live on campus (students with families, graduate students, etc.). Living off campus at some point isn't necessarily about choice (popular or not). It's a fact of life and one that we hope students try to prepare for as much as possible.
The UA requires freshmen under age 21 to live on campus unless they live with parents or family members. Your editorial states, "More and more students are finding loopholes in this rule..." Yet we know that the number of freshmen living off campus has declined in the past few years, as University Housing has added new residence halls and emphasized its program for first-year students.
"If UA officials were to create more perks and cheaper housing... Then, maybe, UA students would give residence halls a second look." With more than 10,000 undergraduate commuters, providing enough on-campus housing is not logical.
It's the mission of Off-Campus Connections to assist undergraduate students living off campus. We hope that this response will better inform the campus community.
Susan Stiers
Associate director
Off-Campus Connections
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