Q: What is your platform and mission statement?
A: The premise of our campaign is bringing transparency and accessibility back to UGBC. We feel that UGBC has kind of become a little cliquey and disconnected from the overall student body population. First, the UGBC website says Jonah Kotzen is still the president, and it’s been a year. Also, if you click on their office hours link, it goes to nothing, and the meeting notes have not been updated in two years.
Adams: I’m going to host weekly office hours, two hours a week. You come into my office, and it can be about anything. Say you’re running a student organization, and funding is getting cut. The UGBC president does have a little bit more weight behind it, so I’ll sit in on the meeting with the administration with you, just to help you out. That’s kind of the accountability and accessibility I want to see as the next UGBC president.
On another note, I have to fill out [the] FAFSA every year because I’m on financial aid, and if you’ve ever gone through that process, it’s incredibly difficult. The financial aid office, while they’re good, do not walk you step by step [on] how to do the FAFSA application. UGBC has about two graduate assistants (GA) that we pay for. We have a $400,000 budget. We want to hire a part time GA for the financial aid period to make sure that everyone, especially our Montserrat students, have opportunities to receive help.
We want to implement a LGBTQ Resource Center. This has been promised for a while now, we have a different approach. We are going to turn the UGBC office into LGBTQ Resource Center, and if they shut us down, they shut us down. But we are going to use part of our budget to hire a grad student, maybe from the Social Work school from Lynch or also just take volunteer peer counselors for our LGBTQ+students. The administration is not approving a center so far, we’re going to do it anyway.
Finally, one of our biggest policies, a one buck policy. Right now, they’re kind of transitioning to a meal swipe program. We have the Eagle Bucks and the dining bucks – we have so many different bucks. Make it one buck.
Q: How do you see yourself being a good liaison between the students and administration?
A: We believe UGBC represents the past. They want to be friends with the administration. We’re not supposed to be friends with the administration. We’re supposed to be friends with the student body. That’s who we represent. We’re not going to be mean to administration. We’re going to be annoying and stubborn, and we’re not going to back down. We view ourselves [as] more of a grassroots government and activist government, one that’s actually representing the needs of the student body.
One example recently [is] the pro-Palestine protests that have been happening, and the restrictions that were placed on there. [The restrictions] are a problem, and the UGBC president should be sitting in with those students. No matter what side you are on, they should have the right to demonstrate, no doubt about it. I would say the same thing for a conservative group. The fact is, they should have the right to demonstrate, of course, peacefully, but, I mean, they weren’t even allowed to use a megaphone. The UGBC president should be sitting down in those meetings with protesters. We were thinking about setting up a demonstration office in the UGBC to make sure that we have someone who’s read up on the rules that can help sit down, but that’s very early in the works. Being aggressive with the administration is going to definitely be a priority.
Q: What are some tangible plans you have?
A: We’re thinking about sending out [a] monthly Google Form just for concerns and ideas. Some people don’t really know what UGBC does. We have to create more engaging content and start promoting more and also showing up at places like different student organization meetings, general bonding meetings. We should have more media interviews. There should be more monthly interviews, more transparency, and also we need to promote the fact that the average student is allowed to go to a UGBC Senate meeting.
Adams: I want [every cabinet member] to go to at least one different organization meeting a month, just to talk with people if you have any concerns. I view it [as] kind of like [being] your mayor. You see your mayor everywhere. You know what I mean? You should be able to see me everywhere and also just annoy me. Why not? I’m a good guy to talk to.
Q: Can you describe your past experience with UGBC?
Adams: I’ve never been on UGBC before, so I’m kind of an outsider. I work for intramurals. I work for BC football as a video guy. I’ve mostly been working jobs because I need to help pay off student loans, so I haven’t been as involved as I’d like to be. That’s why I’m running for president. I’ve never really been involved, so I was looking at the field beforehand, and I wanted a little bit more fundamental change to UGBC.
Q: Why should students care about this election and vote?
A: Because I think that UGBC does matter. I know it doesn’t seem like that, but it really does matter who you have in leadership positions, especially when it comes to these different issues. Again, the budget we control is very large. The power that we have to influence the administration is very large. People need to know that UGBC can make an impact on your day to day life. If you see me, come up. You have an idea, let me know, or just to shake my hand, say hello. I want to be as accessible as possible.
Q: How do you plan to bring better civic engagement and practices outside of UGBC and the greater student body?
A: We should promote more voter engagement, especially when it comes to mayoral elections for Newton, or just even just for the presidential elections. I think access should be up until Election Day. We should be tweeting, we should be out there more and more. I think register to vote drives would be huge to set up for collaboration with UGBC, because UGBC elections are important, but it’s not as important as the president of the United States. We should definitely do more voting drives, easier instructions on getting a mail-in ballot, and engaging with the overall political system.
Q: In the past few years there have been instances of unrest amongst students regarding racism, political unrest, discontent with bodies in BC administration, how would you change UGBC’s reactions to these things?
A: This kind of goes back to my demonstrations point. Students should have the right to protest. There’s a general sense of fear around protesting because of blowback. You get expelled, you get suspended. We should be on the front lines with them protesting. I want UGBC to be more forceful. It’s said that we are one of the worst free speech campuses in the country. I mean, that’s insane. UGBC should take a more active role in doing that. I would be with those students on the front lines and in the meetings, negotiating with the administrators of how to protest.
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