StuCo President Revisits Re-vote Campaign Promise

During his campaign, Student Council President Matthew Robbins promised his fellow students that he would hold a revote after his first term if he did not have the confidence of the council. As of now, the revote has not been held, but Robbins explained his reasoning.

The council has passed a referendum where students can petition for any question to be put on the ballot if it is signed by at least half of the council; this includes whether or not Robbins should stay in office. “I don’t necessarily think there’s a need for a revote to be initiated by me; with the new proposal, I’ve given both the student body and the student an outlet to kick me out of office as they see fit. That doesn’t need to come by me in a mandatory vote,” he said.

Robbins acknowledged that he did not do exactly as promised, but he felt that his current method is advantageous. “Now, students can choose whether to pursue this path or not. If they do, that’s perfectly fine, but I’m giving them the option versus only sticking to one path,” he said. Robbins went on to stress the constraints and limitations that the council faces. “There are many important things we’re considering at StuCo now, and a recall/revote would take a significant amount of time and resources,” he said.

“There are many important things we’re considering at StuCo now, and a recall/revote would take a significant amount of time and resources.”

Other than not holding a revote, Robbins has had to adapt his platform between the time he campaigned and the time he took office. “A multitude of changes that redefined the ways the reforms would be put in place,” he said. “Let’s take for example sexual assault, which was a big part of my platform. I could not have expected what happened over the summer.” According to Robbins, the school administration implemented the policy ideas that Student Council was proposing, which include independent investigators come in and an addendum  to the visitations policy wherein a student is granted immunity from illegal visitations punishment if there has been a sexual assault. “All the things the school did was great—the council’s job has now become to keep them accountable,” Robbins said.

Vice President Hojoon Kim supported Robbins’ statement, emphasizing that the decision to hold a revote belonged to the student body. He called the term “revote” a “bastardization of what Robbins promised.” Kim further stated that the revote cowndition of Robbins’ candidacy was more of a recall mechanism that could have been brought forth, but it was never triggered. He praised Robbins’ work with the student council, confessing that although he tries not to hold bias as the vice president, Robbins’ presidency made quite an impact compared to last year. “Matthew is a hardworking, funny president and friend,” Kim stated. 

Lower and Dorm Representative Yaseen Ahmed is satisfied with the current Student Council presidency. “I’d say it met my expectations. I think he has been performing his duties fine.” Upper and Dorm Representative Emilio Karakey agreed. “It has satisfied me in every way. Matt Robbins is responsible; he knows what he’s talking about—when he first arrived and switched up all the seating, that really showed maturity from him,” he said.

Lower Representative Makinrola Orafidiya voiced a similar opinion, but realized that there is room to improve. “I’m satisfied by the presidency, but I think there could be some improvements,” he said. “His attitude is not cocky, [but it seems] a little bit like he doesn’t really care about people as individuals, and I think that’s important if he wants to receive respect as the president,” he said.

Orafidiya praised Robbins for offering a revote, but thinks that he should still follow through with his promises. “It is honorable that he’s willing to do a revote. I think that if he says it, he needs to stick to it.” Lower and Dorm Representative Gavin Cotter agreed, saying, “If he promised [to hold a revote], I think he should follow through.”

Even though the revote has not happened yet, Ahmed believes there is still time to complete his campaign promises. “Of course he hasn’t done everything yet because it still hasn’t been an entire term and a half. There’s still another half year,” Ahmed said.

Upper and Dorm Representative Gregory Miller disagrees with some parts of Robbins’ platform, but believes that he has been doing a fine job as president. “I personally don’t happen to be in favor of limiting select members, but I do think that Matthew Robbins has been good at having us discuss these issues and bringing them to a vote cause we have voted on them,” he said. Miller believes that a revote would not be helpful. “If it were to come to a vote, the process of finding a replacement would do more harm than good,” he said.

The committee heads, appointed by Robbins himself, seem to agree that Robbins has done well with Student Council. Senior Bella Edo, a previous candidate for Student Council President and Recreation Committee co-head, said that Matt has lead the council in the right direction. “I think that Matt has really made a push to make the way that our student council runs as close to how a college student government might run or even how our national government might run.”

In addition, Edo thought that Robbins has guided StuCowell despite some challenges. “It’s a hard job and he’s really doing a great job with getting everything done and making sure that we stick to an agenda,” she said. She also believes Robbins’ has in fact changed StuCo. “I think a lot of it though was restructuring how StuCo works, and he has done that for better or for worse,” she said. However, Edo believes that Robbins should stick to his campaign promises. “If he’s going to do [hold a revote] I think he needs to stick with that. It’s a little disappointing that that’s a thing that hasn’t come up.”

Upper Gautam Ramesh, a Constitution Committee co-head, shares a similar opinion of the fact that Robbins has completed things in Student council. “I think Matt Robbins has in fact achieved a lot of the policies that he has promised,” he said. Like Robbins, Ramesh feels that there are tools in place to hold a revote if necessary. “If people really want to have this recall election, [they could] start a referendum [and] get the requisite signatures needed to have a recall election,” he said. “I think what’s best for the school is Matthew Robbins remaining as president,” he said.

“I fear that if we have a recall election, we’re going to have a lot of people voting against him just because of kind of preconceived notions that they may have had from the early days when everything seemed to going against him a lot of policies were passed, but I think that now is not the time for a recall election,” he said.

Upper Charlotte Polk said that she had expected a more active approach from StuCo. “I feel like the student council hasn’t really done anything this year to be honest, so I’m not sure it quite met my expectations,” she said.

Although not all of Robbins’ promised policy changes have been implemented, he is satisfied that at least the referendum policy has been passed. “We pushed very hard for these reforms but sometimes these things don’t work out, and that’s how a democracy works,” he said. Robbins believes his presidency thus far has stayed true to its word, given the limitations of the job. “I think we’ve done a lot more than past councils which have zeroed in on one issue whereas we’re pushing on multiple fronts and definitely making a lot of progress. Ultimately, I can say we presented a full platform,” he said.