The Orange and Blue Party released its platform for public input Sunday, but some of the party's ideas could be modified by the time the Student Government election arrives.
Some of the platform points, which include switching UF's e-mail service provider to Gmail and implementing online voting in SG elections, will be familiar to students who voted in spring, but a few ideas are new.
The party's platform is available as a wiki, so students can edit the platform and share their ideas. The platform is linked to from the party's Web site: www.orangeandblueparty.com.
Orange and Blue Party President Sam Miorelli said a new idea that came up in the party's meeting last week was to make STD testing available to students for free.
Miorelli said there are a lot of resources in Alachua County that offer free and reduced-price STD testing, but student access to those places is limited because they are not on campus.
The party also supports creating a committee consisting of students, faculty and alumni to advise UF about where to invest its endowment. The party also wants UF to join the Worker Rights Consortium to ensure Gator and UF apparel is not produced by exploited workers. Miorelli said his party supports Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, which aims to make new drugs developed by UF affordable.
"These are things that Student Government needs to put a strong and official student voice behind," he said.
He said the party aims to cut down on wasteful spending by enlisting a third-party audit of SG's multi-million dollar budget, which is paid by students through Activity and Service fees.
"We don't feel like many students, including us, really trust how Student Government has been spending the money," Miorelli said.
Another initiative calls for the creation of a student committee to oversee entertainment selections for Gator Growl, which is billed as the world's largest student-run pep rally.
This year, comedian Jon Reep of NBC's "Last Comic Standing" and Steve Miller Band will perform.
Miorelli said he has not been impressed with the acts in the past few years, which last year included comedian Frank Caliendo of "MADtv."
"When we've got a bad impersonation of the president, and FSU has Stephen Colbert, you know that there's something wrong," he said.
Gator Party President Luis Nobriga said his party's platform would likely be released at the end of the week.
