Within weeks, I lost any respect I had for the organization. Members showed up drunk to legislative meetings, openly slept at their desks and gossiped about each other. With the election came dirty campaigning. Someone actually told me a story off-the-record that began with, "They met at the clock tower at dawn." One presidential candidate, who lost the runoff, threw his support haphazardly to one ticket, only to rescind it, calling me a liar who crafted fake quotes for stories. Another losing candidate bullied me on Twitter.
*Note: There were a few members who were exceptions to these crazy stories. They genuinely cared about the future of LSU; SG wasn't just a line on a resume to them. And thankfully, the two students who ended up winning the positions of president and vice president were friendly, passionate people who wanted what was best for LSU. They deserved to win.
Many LSU students have negative views of SG, if they have an opinion about the organization at all. And who can really blame them? Over the course of my time at LSU, there have been less and less bad apples in SG, but unfortunately, those bad apples are usually the most vocal.
SG members have tens of thousands of dollars at their hands, and the right people in office really could make a difference at LSU. However, I had grown so pessimistic toward SG I thought none of the good members would have the courage to stand up and change the SG's culture.
And then I met Helen Frink.
Helen was one year younger than me when she pledged my sorority. She lit up the room with her energy, and wanted to get involved in college right away. She joined SG, and (with my attitude toward SG), I believed that her voice would be drowned out by all the negative leaders. But she never gave up. She created many bills, including one that put sustainable water fountains all over campus. She never gave up on her ideas, and made sure she was making LSU a better place than how she found it.
Having noticed that past candidates followed a stereotype (white male presidential candidate, paired with a white female vice presidential candidate, both of whom were typically Greek), and that they handpicked their friends to run with them, Helen flipped the table.
Helen Frink decided to run for LSU SG president, the first woman to do so in recent memory.
She picked a well-spoken, intelligent and detail-oriented man to run with her for vice president. I've only met Wesley Davis a few times, but just in those few minutes, he's convinced me that he has the drive and initiative to get things done.
Then, Helen and Wesley turned to the student body to listen to their concerns about SG. They visited 37 organizations, allowed students to sit in a "hot seat" on campus to voice their ideas, and listened to students for a total of 1,987 minutes. After getting ideas from actual students, then they drafted initiatives. And if elected, they won't stop there. Helen has promised to hold open office hours and will listen to any student who will come in. She has promised to take those concerns to make LSU a better place for all.
Helen is different from any other person I've met in SG. She understands the potential that SG has, and she also understands that SG has a tendency to put up blinders to the majority of students. She wants to listen, and she wants to make her time at LSU matter. Helen is genuine, she is honest and she has integrity. Helen doesn't just say she's passionate, she shows she's passionate. She has fantastic ideas, is great at delegating tasks, and knows how to unite a team of different people together toward a common goal. Helen wants to be LSU SG president because she wants to represent ALL students.
For the first time since first coming on this campus, I believe that SG can benefit LSU, if only Helen Frink becomes president.
You can vote through your Moodle accounts, or at this link: http://students.lsu.edu/sg/elections. Polls close at midnight.
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