The Students' Party platform included several concrete plans for cutting student costs and trimming MSA fat. As the power passes from one administration to the next, the new leaders will certainly face new responsibilities and challenges, including planning the budget for student-group allocations, which should remain MSA's primary purpose.
However, MSA president and vice-president elects Michael Nagrant and Olga Savic must not lose sight of the platform on which students elected them; likewise, the rest of the assembly must be willing to work toward common goals. MSA, like most student governments, cannot accomplish anything on its own - its most significant actions must be ratified by the University Board of Regents. The Students' Party's well-thought-out plans could help change MSA's reputation of inaction. But change can only come by building with the regents and administration a relationship that firmly represents the student voice.
One of the Students' Party's best plans is to cut $2,000 from the MSA's internal operations budget. By recent MSA actions, it has become evident that operations budgets include sufficient funds for questionable purchases. If the budget is large enough to allow for expensive perks for officers, a new budget should certainly divert funds to student groups. Nagrant's itemized budget for operations budget fat-trimming displays frugality, a concern for students and good sense. The Students' Party demonstrates a desire to be financially responsible - a pitfall of some past MSA administrations.
Creating a student-run coursepack store is an original idea that the new officers should devote time and effort to developing. Most students face semesterly textbook costs that creep into the hundreds; coursepacks often add to the bill, without the common textbook option of purchasing used copies at a discount. The Students' Party goal to create a student-run coursepack store - with plans to include coursepack swaps and used coursepack sales - is an innovative idea that could save students money in an important place.
Despite the strength of ideas, even the best officers can accomplish little if assembly representatives bicker amongst themselves. The new assembly will be strikingly different than before, with a composition now evenly dispersed between the Michigan Party and the Students' Party. Nagrant and Savic should be especially careful to foster healthy assembly relations so that needless squabbling will not hinder the goals that students mandated with their votes.