Stronger United

Vote for CSUnited This Week

OpinionsJon Kim — Published March 24, 2014

I’m sure many of you have noticed our advertisements playing on the screens around campus. The digital network, which has screens on both campuses, is publicly available to use for students. It is also something that virtually no one was aware of before our ads went up. Since our ads went up, we’ve had several representatives from different clubs and organizations approach us about getting their material on the network, and we hope that next year students are actively using the network to promote their events. This could save the clubs at Concordia thousands of dollars in advertising, and would result in every organization on campus becoming more sustainable and environmentally friendly. The digital network is a perfect example of the many forgotten resources at Concordia.

The Greek [i.e. fraternity and sorority] community at Concordia is another one of those forgotten resources. It is no secret that several members on the CSUnited team come from the Greek community, and I am of the opinion such a community could play a much larger role on campus if given the chance. The six Greek organizations on campus, many of which have been in operation since the 1960s, are some of the oldest student-run organizations on campus, and collectively raise thousands of dollars for charity every year. They also manage the Guadagni Lounge, the oldest student-run food initiative at Concordia.

The Guadagni Lounge, or G-Lounge for short, is a student-run coffee bar managed by various members of the Greek community. The G-Lounge has been open on the Loyola campus for decades and it is an accessible space for students to use; furthermore, it provides affordable food to hundreds of students every day and provides jobs for members of the community, all without a fee levy. It has also been completely overlooked and disregarded in discussions concerning student-run food initiatives and student space at the Loyola campus. For all of the talk of opening a student-run coffee bar on the Loyola campus, the G-Lounge—which is a student-run coffee bar on the Loyola campus—never seems to come up. For whatever reason, the G-Lounge is another forgotten resource.

The most underused and forgotten resource at Concordia however, is you, the students. You are the resources we at CSUnited are most interested in using. I am of the opinion that the CSU is predominantly made up of an in-crowd, the political class at Concordia.

Voter turnout in recent years has reached an all-time low at Concordia, and I believe the reason for that is that most students are not actively engaged by the CSU, and aren’t encouraged to get involved. The members of CSUnited come from different clubs and organizations on campus, and it has been our experience that if your club or organization is not a part of that in-crowd that makes up the political class at Concordia, the CSU may not represent you.

Concordia’s greatest strength is its diversity. I want for the CSU to represent all students from all walks of life, and have the CSU be made up of all kinds of students rather than a select group of students who are the political elite at Concordia. I feel that CSUnited best represents Concordia’s diversity and the strength of its student community.

Not only is CSUnited the only team that represents all four faculties at Concordia, but we also represent more clubs and organizations on campus than any other team. Furthermore, we are the most culturally diverse team on the ballot, with members from Concordia’s active Asian, Hispanic, Native, and LGBT communities.

We are not members of Concordia’s political elite. We are everyday students who are active and engaged in the Concordia community. We would like to represent Concordia’s diverse and strong student community within, and we would like to use the resources that exist within this school to their fullest potential, and build a better Concordia in the coming year.

Concordia is strong. But it is stronger united.

Please vote for CSUnited.