by Dyanna Rivera
MADRID – As we enter the second half of March, this yearās campaign season begins to draw to a close. On Monday, March 15, Team Serendipity, The Hive, and Legacy gathered together to assert their cases one last time before letting students cast their vote.
The debate started with general questions from The Stork. The first question asking about how each team would conduct meetings with IEās administration and how often these meetings would occur.
Serendipity asserted that they wanted to have meetings with administration twice a month to communicate student needs more clearly, encouraging the student body to āspeak when you need and talk louder when you have toā.
Legacy disagreed with Serendipity, saying that such frequent meetings are āinefficientā, instead saying that one meeting each month should suffice. However, if itās the student governmentās job to be meeting with administrators to communicate issues as they arise, shouldnāt we be encouraging frequent meetings?
The Hive expressed a vague stance, stating that ātimes are changing rapidlyā due to COVID, therefore itās difficult to establish a definite proposal for this. Although this is a fair point, basically saying weāre not sure but weāll cross that bridge when we get there just makes it look like the team lacks a clear vision as to how communications in this area should work.
Another topic of debate was each teamās stance on the issues within IE regarding diversity and inclusion, specifically regarding racial complaints from different students.
Serendipity took a personal approach in their answer, with Fiona Wu, the teamās president, recounted her own experiences with racial harrassment and discrimination in Spain. However, she stated that āwe often connotate diversity with nationalityā due to IEās international nature, going on to say that attention to diversity should also include demographics regarding sexual and gender identity and socioeconomic status.
Legacyās response to what couldāve been a powerful breakdown of racial diversity on campus by Team Serendipity was that there is a difference between diversity and tolerance. Daniel Aguilera, Legacyās president, argued that social events can help promote diversity and breakdown racial stereotypes and divides, uniting the IE campus once and for all. This all sounds lovely with everyone singing kumbaya at the end of the year celebration the team proposed, but if this were really the solution then IE would not have had these same problems in the past as expressed in the open letter to the IE administration published last spring.Ā
The Hive responded by stating the obvious, that āthis is a very sensitive issueā which requires close work with the Inclusion and Diversity Committee, urging the community to continue coming forward to make their experiences known.Ā
Next were questions from the current student government, targeted at individual teams. One of these first questions addressed the problem of extreme time zone differences, specifically for students who are in Asia. Considering that Team Legacy wants to repeal non class learning sessions, how would they navigate this obstacle?
Legacy responded by saying that their proposal suggests replacing non class learning sessions with Zoom classes so that students can interact with the professor and the class without āwastingā hundreds of euros. But the problem still stands – replacing non class learnings with more Zoom sessions only exacerbates the struggle these students have to go through to attend class, meaning that money is still āwastedā when students can hardly stay awake enough to genuinely learn the class material. Legacy went on to criticize Serendipityās shuttle proposal for the millionth time, temporarily derailing the debate from the topic at hand.
Team Serendipity and The Hive both responded to the question with proposals that would work to build off the current model rather than eliminating non class learnings entirely.
The next question from the student government was directed towards Team Serendipity, asking how exactly they planned on managing titles since their communications officer is also running for a..wellness position?
Fiona defended Serendipity by explaining that the student government needs āto be flexibleā when it comes to managing student wellness. She cited her own experience last spring of helping a friend through crisis, reasoning that students are more likely to trust their peers than a professional, hence why her team saw a need for a Wellness Executive. Responding to backlash about how this could potentially be against the universityās bylaws, Fiona stated that the bylaws say itās up to each team to decide what their titles will be.
Abdul Salam, running as The Hiveās president, immediately responded to Fionaās sentiment expressing that ā[he doesnāt] think that a student should be responsibleā for another studentās mental health. Salam then went on to highlight the various resources available on campus for students who are struggling. But how exactly does The Hive want to promote these resources? Perhaps weāll know in September if theyāre elected.
Legacy responded again with criticism towards Serendipity, completely avoiding the question and instead focusing on the health of Serendipityās Communications and Wellness Executive. To a bystander at this point, it may have appeared that the debate was over a personās well-being rather than policy proposals. Legacy also came back around to their previous arguments against Serendipityās proposals, again citing the budgetary concerns for Serendipityās shuttle policy.
Before moving on to the next question, Fiona defended this policy by claiming that she had submitted a detailed proposal for the shuttle earlier this week.
To The Hive, the student government inquired about how exactly the team planned on increasing traffic to Campus Groups, considering that itās a third party platform IE has no control over.
The Hiveās response was to make the installation of Campus Groups mandatory for all students to promote traffic, after which they can begin to promote incentives for students using the platform. But how reasonable is this? We all know the saying – you can lead a horse to water but you canāt force it to drink. Realistically, we canāt expect IE to regulate this in the same way they do with COVID status. As if the security guards will ask students for proof that they have Campus Groups? I think not.
Legacy responded to the question by suggesting that adding high profile events will get students excited to be more involved on campus and within the app before shifting to their own proposal of transportation upgrades for clubs and athletics. However, considering that Campus Life already provides considerable reimbursement in the case of transportation emergencies are these upgrades really needed? In other words, why try to fix something that isnāt broken?
The Hive and Serendipity both shared this sentiment, with The Hive lashing back on Legacy stating that āmaybe [Legacy should] ask IE to hand out masks…since you like money so muchā.
Daniel Aguilera from Team Legacy retaliated, claiming that the teams āmay have disagreements but [Legacy] wonāt be accusing them of āmoneyā ā. Just a quick rewind though, wasnāt Legacy just attacking Serendipity repeatedly over money with the shuttle? Or maybe that was just our imaginations.
Now that students have had the chance to listen in on the details each team had to provide on their policies (which in some cases, there werenāt any details – yikes), they are free to cast their vote via BlackBoard until march 19th at 11:59 pm. Stay tuned with The Stork and student government on Instagram @ieustudentgov and @ieustork for updates.
Keep voting !