Ah, the naiveté of being a UF freshman.
I remember my first election vividly, strolling across Turlington Plaza as I was bombarded by fliers from the Progress and Gator parties, proclaiming the omnipotence of the dueling platforms.
That year I ran as an independent. I even won the glowing endorsement of this very paper, proclaiming that "both parties were less than impressive…and we should take the Kyle Robisch approach to supporting the best ideas, regardless of who supports them." Even with the endorsement, I fell well short of victory in the fall of 2007.
For the next two semesters, I found myself in the Orange and Blue camp hoping that they could change the political scene. Yet a year later, despite promises of online voting, SG transparency and effective governance, the student body was left with little change and few results.
So a friend and I decided to form an independent, non-partisan organization called "Swamp the Polls" to increase voter turnout, because I felt that there was no way to directly change SG except from the outside.
For far too long, our student government has been fundamentally broken. On one side there were complaints of corruption and inefficiency, while the other sat and argued but didn't do much more. Yet this election cycle brought promise, as a new party, Unite, emerged.
As someone who has been on all sides of UF politics, from independent to Orange and Blue, to apathetic, I was initially skeptical. I had to choose between offers to slate with both Orange and Blue and Unite. Wasn't this just going to be a continuation of the politics of old, under a fresh new banner?
It quickly became apparent that this wasn't the case. Moving beyond the petty bickering of the Orange and Blue/Progress split, Unite promises to move SG in a positive, new direction.
Rather than sticking to petty platform points such as posting a crossing guard at Hume or live streaming Student Senate, the Unite platform is something every Gator can be proud of.
From recovering two dollars from every parking ticket to constructing a 'students only' parking garage, to expanding printing access across campus, to establishing a 24/7 study facility on campus, we are fighting for actual student concerns.
Even though I stand firmly by the Unite Party platform, I also still stand by my pledge to support the best ideas regardless of party. I support online voting, expanding paper recycling across campus and eliminating SG lobbyists, all platform points proposed by opposing parties.
Yet my party affiliation will not prevent me from voting for these ideas when they come up in the Senate, and this is the strength of the Unite Party. Rather than settling for partisan bickering and division, Unite is willing to slate candidates who promise to represent the entirety of the student body and its political beliefs.
It's about time student government started working for and not against the students.
Make it this election.
Kyle Robisch is an economics and political science sophomore.
