Update: Since publication, Jake Brewer has been named this year’s student body president after accumulating 1,067 votes.
21-year-old Ohio native Jake Brewer is making a name for himself as the face of Clean Slate, a platform that he hopes will help him win Boston University’s upcoming student body presidential elections.
When asked to describe his campaign, Brewer used one word: transparency.
Brewer, who has helped draft three proposals for the constitutional reform committee, has built his campaign around the fight for financial transparency.
According to Brewer, Clean Slate is arguing for a democratic system in which students can vote on various issues within the community, including how and where to allocate funds.
Clean Slate is particularly concerned with BU’s annual tuition raise.
“I study and work 35 hours a week and I’ve been getting pennies squeezed out of me every year,” Brewer said.
Anam Amirali, a campaign staffer for Clean Slate, shared Brewer’s frustration.
“BU is taking money I don’t have, nor will I ever have,” Amirali said.
Brewer, whose mother is a teacher, is also concerned with the treatment on BU’s adjunct professors, who Brewer says make $10,000 per course they teach.
“We’re trying to get dialogue with administrations about office space, living wage, contracts that will be ready two months before the semester starts,” Brewer said.
In addition to financial transparency, Clean Slate is especially concerned with the concerns of students with disabilities. The campaign hopes to work with both students with disabilities and BU’s Office of Disabilities.
“Our entire campaign is about creating dialogue,” Brewer said. “We want to have (students with disabilities’) complaints and concerns answered before the issue takes place.”
The Clean Slate campaign, which consists of about 50 people, hopes that a “direct democracy” will help to solve these concerns.
“We’re trying to turn student government into an advocating body as well as a running body,” Brewer said. “The administration does not trust us with the facts about what’s really going on.”
Dina Hidayah, 20, said she initially chose to get involved with Clean Slate because of Brewer himself.
“Something Jake has always told me is that he believes in people,” Hidayah said. “He knows that people are smart enough to recognize when they’re being fucked over.”
Voting for student body president begins on March 28th and runs through April 3rd.
Supporters of the Clean Slate campaign can visit their website, cleanslate2016.com.