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Ben Graff: Executive Vice President

By Erin Mahoney
Arizona Daily Wildcat
March 3, 1999
Send comments to:
letters@wildcat.arizona.edu

Unopposed candidate Ben Graff sees the position of executive vice president as an opportunity to reach out to students - even if it calls for a change in the ASUA constitution.

Graff, a political science and psychology sophomore and an Associated Students senator, would like to require Senate members to solicit student opinion before voting on resolutions.

"It starts with me," Graff said. "It's something I'm taking full responsibility for."

Graff said the idea comes from Penn State University, which has a "pulse team" that gathers student opinions before their government takes a vote. He said the senators should be required to act as the "pulse team."

But that would require changing the ASUA constitution, which is slated for revision next year.

"It's really the missing link," Graff said, adding that the plan would increase support for resolutions.

He cited ASUA Sen. Josue Limon's childcare resolution as an example, and said it would have been more successful with student opinion.

"It was just Josue and a couple of others," Graff said. "What it wasn't was 10,000 students behind it."

Graff said the plan would also eliminate unpopular resolutions, such as last year's document that condemned the Arizona Daily Wildcat for a controversial comic strip that was deemed homophobic.

"It got us bad publicity we deserved," he said.

Graff's plans also include improving upon his I.N.P.U.T. forum by making it more focused and possibly designating specific issues to be discussed.

"There are about two billion things we can do better," he said.