Political Story Reshuffle Final Version
Dear Reader,
When it comes to politics, I’m definitely not the person to turn to for information. It doesn’t interest me. Though, I had a school journalism assignment about Duluth’s mayoral election, so grudgingly, I did some research. Here is what I found:
Surprisingly enough, at the mayoral level, candidates don’t have to be affiliated with any political party. Since the candidates are on their own, they can’t contact the school’s student political organization if they wanted to debate or visit, they have to speak with an unbiased group, which for UMD that is often the Student Legislative Coalition (SLC), I was later told by a SLC member.
The SLC’s purpose is to be the students’ voice at all level of the government by “lobbying for student interest (at the U of M),� according to the UMD student organization Web site: http://vcassl.d.umn.edu/ksc/index.php/Student_Legislative_Coalition_%28SLC%29.
To an extent this statement shocked me. I’d never heard of these people and they’re representing me (as a student). I wondered how they decided what “my� interests were which intrigued me enough to do more searching.
I found that the group comes up with projects that they feel the students will benefit from. They have successfully lobbied for the rebuilding of the UMD library, the Swenson Science building and the Sports and Health Center. The science building doesn’t affect me, since lets face it, I am an English major, science and I don’t mesh. Though, I love the library, more books. Yeah!
One enlightening fact is that when a housing ordinance and a 300-foot rule were proposed at the mayoral election in 2003-2004, they helped stop it from being passed. This fact is interesting since it’s another major topic in this election. As a student, I don’t want this rule to be passed. It means major trouble for students. This made me start to look at the group with more respect
It is not much in the whole scheme of local politics. But hopefully this adds another dimension in your search of knowledge.
Best regards,
Carleenie
P.S. All information was from the SLC’s Web site: http://www.d.umn.edu/~slc.