Since the initial polls resulted in a mandatory runoff between the top two Presidential and Vice Presidential candidate teams, we decided to sit down with Olivia Rothstein of Rothstein and Pullin to discuss how the two could be the first all-female pair to tell us a little more about their campaign.
- Hi Olivia! Can you tell us a little about how you’re feeling right now and what your plans are for moving forward?
-
I’m feeling great. I’m feeling very confident that we’re going to be able to get together the votes and get a victory. So we’re going to work on reaching out to even more people and more clubs than before: sororities, Greek life.
- One of the main pillars of your platform is pushing for the implementation of the Red Flag Policy. Could you explain a little more about what that is?
-
So the Red Flag Policy is a national movement. Essentially what we want to do is make sure that if someone commits a crime of sexual assault or sexual misconduct, it goes onto their academic records as well as their public. That way you won’t be able to switch to another institution to escape accountability.
- Why did you pick that and other platforms to build your campaign?
-
These are issues that I and my running mate are very passionate about. Another part of our campaign that we believe in personally, is advocating for free STI testings. That’s just something that we think should be a no brainer, to keep our campus safer and healthier. In instances that keep happening like the racist videos, those need to stop and should not be accepted on this campus. That’s why we want to address issues of diversity by creating the Diversity Inclusion Council. All of our platform in some way relates to empowering students, keeping students safe, and making this a home where everyone can happy.
- Can you explain more about that diversity council and what that’s going to do?
-
Right now SGA has a diversity council, but we want something that’s permanent. So if we put it under a different office, so that it’s already there, they would meet throughout the semester with representatives from different groups on campus such as Greek life, student veterans, minority students, and more. This provides a way to communicate in one space.
- What did you learn from being committee director that you’ll bring with you into office?
-
Calista and I are both committee directors and we worked a lot on bringing tangible changes to campus. We know how to take the steps to accomplish the platform that we propose because we’ve worked with administrators before. We know the routes to take, the people to talk to and we already have these connections built, so when we become president and vice president, we’ll be able to utilize that to be able to get all of our initiatives accomplished efficiently.
- When you become president and vice president, what are you going to do first?
-
Haha, celebrate! After that, we’d focus on appointing our cabinet members to make sure we can get the most intelligent and competent students. Ideally, we want to see the most diverse cabinet the SGA has ever had.
- Do you have anything in particular that you haven’t been able to get across yet that you haven’t put out there?
-
We want to work on increasing the accessibility on campus. For students with disabilities, our campus is particularly difficult to navigate. I’ve been working with different departments to get another automatic door installed and we’re working to connect with the app, AXX Access Maps to let students with disabilities know the best way to get around. We also want to work on getting priority registration for our veteran students who are going underappreciated and underrepresented. We’re actually the first school in the state of South Carolina to have a veterans honors society that student veterans themselves established. We’d also like to see a payment plan for parking, which we know is really expensive, and that goes with our financial goals. One of our main platforms is tuition transparency. So any time the tuition goes up, we think the administration should be required to tell us why it’s going up because we all know the price of college is insurmountable. Our platform is designed based on the sustainability program (economic, social, and environmental) and coincides with the three core aspects of our campaign.
- What do you hope to carry with you beyond this?
-
It’s a sense of pride. It’s a really incredible feeling to bring change to campus and see it permanently. Being able to have that feeling of fulfillment and knowing that I was able to help others and improve the school for the people to come in the future makes me really proud.
Don’t forget to vote on Cougar Connect April 10-11 to make your voice heard!