Davidson will work for, with students

Gilbert Davidson

The question is, is the incumbent, Rhonda Wilson, the best choice for next year's ASUA president?

Because the ASUA president should, first and foremost, represent the wants and needs of UA students and work to fill those needs whenever possible, the answer must be no.

Wilson has had her opportunity to prove what she would do, and she has not done enough for students.

We need to try for something better.

Wilson has tried to do some good things for UA students, including working closely with the Arizona Students' Association, Arizona's student-lobbying group, on their behalf.

She has spent a lot of time this year in Phoenix, for example, speaking at budget hearings and working on other legislative matters. But such things are the job of ASA after all. Despite her good intentions and some of the benefits her efforts have reaped , such as the work study bill she has been pushing for along with ASA, she has just not been in touch with students, and that is one of her biggest weaknesses.

Her challenger, Senate Chairman Gilbert Davidson, has already proven, in the past year especially, that he is willing to make time, and in fact enjoys getting out of the ASUA offices and speaking with students. For example, when the Association for Studen ts with Disabilities was upset over Vice President of Programs and Services Mindy McCollum's choice of director for its group, Davidson met with its members more than once trying to negotiate a solution.

When asked how she would bridge the gap between the administration and students and between ASUA and students, Wilson says she would try to create a president's advisory council, similar to the council UA President Manuel Pacheco has. Davidson says he wou ld work to get administrators out more to speak to student groups. The major difference between their suggestions is Wilson's brings administrators and student leaders in to meet with her council. Davidson would try to get them out to speak with average s tudents across campus.

The answers reflect a fundamental difference in their styles. Davidson has simply been more visible and more approachable to students and student groups than Wilson has.

For example, when she ran last year, she was sometimes labeled "anti-Greek," a charge that seems unfounded. But, Wilson had promised to meet with Greek leaders to try to better relations with those in the Greek community. When called on the promise, Wilso n says she had tried to set up meetings with some Greek leaders, but nothing ever materialized.

That leads to another of the differences between the candidates: following through.

Davidson just does it better than Wilson. In general, Davidson keeps appointments, returns phone calls and meets deadlines. Wilson, on the other hand, has gained a reputation for rescheduling or missing meetings, failing to return calls and postponing de adlines, such as when she repeatedly put off a decision on the new ASUA constitution, delaying further work on the document.

Wilson says being a second-term president would give her the edge over anyone new in the position. It is true she would have certain advantages, as she says, such as knowing the system and already having relationships with key administrators.

The problem with that argument, though, is that Davidson also knows the system and has cultivated relationships with administrators, and his appear to be stronger than hers.

Davidson's work on the Student Union is a perfect example of this. For two years, he has worked on making the Union a priority to the administration, serving as chairman of the Student Union Advisory Council since 1995. Wilson has worked for the Student U nion, also by meeting with administrators and members of the Arizona Board of Regents, but Davidson has definitely taken the lead on the issue and has done more work on it.

Both candidates are intelligent and competent, but Davidson should be next year's ASUA president.

In many ways his small-town upbringing, he's from Willcox, Ariz., seems responsible for the traits that will make him a good president.

He will work hard. He will follow through. He will get out and talk with students. And he will do what he thinks is best for those students.

By Editorial Staff (president endorsement)
Arizona Daily Wildcat
March 3, 1997