Logan Taylor - Davis

Logan Taylor is a candidate for ASUCD Senate in the Fall 2009 ASUCD Election.

Candidate Statement

My name is Logan Taylor, and I am an independent candidate for the ASUCD Senate, fall quarter of 2009. Fresh out of the California community college system this year, I have ascended from a localized commuter school in Los Angeles to a large, vibrant community of thinkers, athletes and artists who value their college experiences immeasurably.

Over the past month I’ve met several wonderful people, and adjusted to the demands of my course load quite aptly. I often find myself falling in love with the charm of Davis; one of a dying breed of small American college towns. Unlike most other candidates in the past, I am not studying Political Science or Economics. A semester abroad in spring 2008 at Oxford-Brookes University, UK, enlightened me as to what was truly important in the realm of academia: the human being. As a Socio-Cultural Anthropology major with an area focus in American Studies, I attempt to understand a broad range of cultural elements objectively, including the political systems and structures which characterize some of the most basic societies in the world, to multifarious, conglomerate societies such as our own. I believe that this might distinguish me from most of the other candidates running in this election because rather than studying the theory of modern political practice (only to then apply it to a federal model ASUCD), I study the deeper meaning of organized human behaviors; what it is to make informed, ethical, political decisions concerning the allocation of resources to sub-sects of a population. From what I understand, this is what the ASUCD Senate serves to do primarily. The Senate will consider a variety of spending bills all year long, and in the spring they will pass a budget which is made up of portions of all our undergraduate tuition fees.

Elements of my platform are:

TRANSPARENCY (not just another false promise)

Currently, there is no real definition for “Senate Project” in the ASUCD bylaws. This has allowed for a great deal of spending with “senate reserves” (another alias for our money) on projects which are completely irrelevant to the student body at large. As long as “Senate Project” appears on a bill, we could potentially be picking up the tab for private parties. I propose an amendment be made.
I also hope to revise and reintroduce ASUCD bill #69 (an inexplicably failed transparency initiative), which would mandate meticulous itemization on spending bills.

PROPOSED LEGISLATURE

I will author bills that reappropriate funding for “senate projects,” such as SAFEBOAT for instance. This is an admittedly effective service, though it truly has no relevance to ASUCD expenditure, seeing as though these Memorial Day weekend festivities/maritime debaucheries/fatalities, or whatever you want to call them, are entirely unaffiliated with UC Davis. If anything, we as a university should strive to usher in a new age of personal responsibility.

COLLABORATION

If I am elected, I will author a bill proposing a mutual fund be shared between KDVS and the Entertainment Council, inducing further events collaboration and optimizing the quality and accessibility of campus-wide musical entertainment.

My concern is your college experience alone. Thank You.