Editor’s Note: The Daily Orange Editorial Board interviewed each presidential and vice presidential candidate pair in the running for the Student Association’s 60th session. In an effort to provide transparency in the Editorial Board’s endorsement decision, The D.O. has decided to publish the transcript of each interview. Tom Duszkiewicz, Andrew Brendel’s vice presidential running mate, was unable to attend the interview.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: So, if you want to start out by introducing yourself and quickly running us through some key points of your platform?

Andrew Brendel: I am Andrew Brendel and I am running for president. This is J.P., he is my campaign manager. My vice president Tom [Duszkiewicz] is not in town today so he was unable to come. Our campaign is basically about progress and unity. We feel the first step to making any meaningful progress on this campus is to unite the student body. I feel like there’s sort of a division and we would like to see a united vision, moving forward. Our primary goal of our campaign is to release students of the ever-increasing financial burden. They’ve already announced that tuition is going up – nothing is getting less expensive, everything is just getting more expensive.

One of the things that we’d like to see in particular is the cost of textbooks be included in the existing cost of tuition. We feel that the tools for learning should be included in the cost of learning itself. We don’t feel that you should have to pay for textbooks when you’re already paying for the class. You learn less at that point just paying for a chair to sit in because I have a lot of professors who just read the textbook. If the cost of textbooks isn’t included, then what are you really paying for for that class?

In addition to that, we’d like to see general financial waste reduced across this. By doing that, those savings could be passed on to the student body. There is a ton of waste – I see it all the time. I feel like it’s just a matter of addressing the big elephant in the room and just taking that head-on. We’d like to that by forming a committee which will search for and eliminate financial waste and pass the recommendations onto the administration. Then, by doing that, things, like intramural sports and other extracurricular activities that are here on campus, we think should be free. You’re already paying for a student activities fee, so should be entitled for student activities. The last one is less important, but it’s a personal pet peeve of mine. Which is that when you go to the vending machine, things are twice as much as they are when you go to the café that’s about 5 feet away. That’s just ridiculous. There’s no real point to that.

And our second most important initiative is our – we’d like to tackle the issues of diversity on campus. We’ve already received some support from the various student organizations who aim to address these issues, such as MEN, which is Multicultural Empowerment Network for men of color. And I’ve also received a personal endorsement from the president of (the SU chapter of) the NAACP. I’ve been able to do it on behalf of the organization for their own internal policies which they are not allowed… In speaking with her and the members of the NAACP, they would love to codify in the student handbook that you’re not allowed to harass – well, obviously, you’re not allowed to do that to begin with – but they’d like to see it specifically within the manual, especially when racially derogatory words are used. That that should be an offense in and of itself. Because you may remember a soccer player (Hannah Strong) here who caught on videotape using offensive language and there’s a DPS police officer there and he did nothing to stop it.

And while we obviously respect the right of free speech, there’s no need or place for bigotry on this campus. And that’s something that we are willing to fight for. Past that, we’d like to work with the recently formed chancellor’s Workgroup on Diversity and Inclusion, which recently came out with a report. We’d like to take their findings and then hopefully improve conditions around campus.

Past that, we’d like to raise awareness for mental illness and available treatment on this campus… I think a lot of people don’t understand that there’s access to treatment, that they’re entitled to treatment. They feel alone, they feel isolated. We’d like to see a better education for the student body, regarding the available resources – who they can turn to, where they can go, so no one suffers alone.

Fourth, we would like to work with DPS to expand student, building and road safety. I currently live at Washington Arms – which is on the corner of Harrison and Walnut Road. It’s atrocious with traffic riding by. Pedestrian pathways, cars are flying by 50 miles per hour and DPS is never there to enforce the rules, as they should be, but they will be there anytime there’s a party at Castle (Court), so it’s just, sort of selective enforcement.

We’d like to see anti-sexual violence initiatives that are, you know, sort of in the process of beginning, due to local and state legislation. We’re starting to do the “Yes Means Yes” campaign, “It’s On Us” and all those sort of initiatives. We’d like to continue those and also increase the education for freshman and upperclassmen for all the resources related to that.

Also, recently, I received an email at the beginning of the year, the beginning of this semester, about the addition of classroom locks to certain buildings. I don’t know if that was just a Whitman thing… But safety should be paramount, so we’d like to see classroom locks and just general building safety improved throughout the entire campus and have that should have no delay. There should be no delay when it comes to safety. And also, we’ve heard concerns from our peers that off-campus living is sometimes scary and dangerous, and we’d obviously like to increase patrols – obviously that would not be through DPS, but that would be through the city. We’d have to work in conjunction with them to do patrols around this area so students can feel safer.

And lastly, we’d like to connect to our surrounding community. The purpose of the Nancy Cantor warehouse was to be a bridge between our school and our community. I feel that even though that’s been there for awhile now, we’re just as separated from them as we were before this building. We’d like to see a lot more effort on improving the lives of those who surround us. For many of us, it’s not our home. We’re in someone else’s home, this is their city. And we owe them to a certain extent and we should make it better. Syracuse has the highest concentration of poverty amongst black and Hispanic populations in the entire United States. We have an institution with an endowment exceeding $1 billion, so it’s sort of just dangling money in their face and not offering any assistance to some of the poorest people in the entire country.

That is a general overview of our campaign and our initiatives and what we want to do.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: Going back to your first initiative about finances, this would involve cutting costs and cutting expenses. Where are you going to make that money up if you are requiring students to pay less?

Andrew Brendel: Hopefully by reducing waste, then – for example, we play intramural sports and one of the things we do is staff one game with four people, four students being paid a salary. You eliminate those redundant positions and now no longer have to pay the fee to pay.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: Besides those positions, can you give any examples of financial waste that you see on campus?

Andrew Brendel: Not specifically, but that would be something that would help form the committee. People who have that experience, in other places, they might observe things that I don’t see on a daily basis. They will be able to better suggest, better solve that issue.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board:You said including the cost of textbooks in classes – what about classes that don’t have textbooks? I know I take a lot of classes without textbooks, while my biology major roommate spends like $500 a semester. Where would the balance come between different kinds of students?

Andrew Brendel: That’s why on our sheet here it says “textbooks and class materials.” I know that for a lot of art majors and varying requirements, varying things that you need to purchase. Same idea would apply to textbooks as to class materials. If you are an art major and you need paintbrushes, they should be supplied to you.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: Some classes don’t actually require any materials, so I feel like some people would be a little disappointed because other people are getting things included with their (tuition cost).

Andrew Brendel: There would not be anything, really. The purpose of this is to relieve the additional financial burden in addition to the baseline financial burden, so if you’re not facing that financial burden, I guess it would be somewhat lucky.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: In terms of social programs, you talked about intramural sports. Where do you stand on the student athletic fee? The conversation was about instituting a $100 fee for football and basketball tickets. What are your thoughts on that policy?

Andrew Brendel: I’m not familiar with this. So, it’s a $100 fee for all of this and it gives you access to football and basketball games? … I think that honestly – I don’t know if everyone knows this – we have one of the most valuable sports programs, one of the most valuable basketball teams in the NCAA. In my personal opinion, I don’t think there really should be any cost to that. Obviously, that’s not something that I’m going to walk up to the administration and “Oh, yeah, sure, you want it to be free? So it could be free.” That’s definitely a starting point, with a $100 flat fee, and then possible negotiation between the student body as a whole and the administration after that. That would be a good start, in my opinion, versus where it is is now, where some students have and are willing to pay the extra amount and other students feel excluded from sporting events.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: You talk about educating in relation to mental illness and treatment. What exactly would that look like? Will we see stuff on the back of bathroom stalls? How will you go about educating people?

Andrew Brendel: I think for education purposes, a lot of stuff starts with freshman year. It’s when you’re most receptive to these types of educational programs. I know, generally, my freshman year, we had a general education of things. I think it was very vague, very glossed over. Maybe we talked about it for one hour for two separate days. I think if you made it more comprehensive – the education of our freshman students – if they receive that knowledge their first year, it’s something they carry with them. Then, any changes that are made to the policies – that’s something we can inform again students still living on campus through their RA’s. And for students living off campus through various seminars that could be put on.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board:Would you make them attend another lecture or make them read a packet and sign it?

Andrew Brendel: The way to best guarantee that they will receive the information is to have more of a lecture-style. Like you said, a packet where you sign it. While it might be annoying to some people, it’s definitely an important issue for everyone on this campus. I think it’s definitely something that should be mandated and a lecture would probably be the most appropriate.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: A lot of people complain not just about not knowing about mental illness treatment options or counseling in general, but the lack of that. Is that something that you’d address?

Andrew Brendel: Yes, absolutely. I think that we have seen lots of cuts in the wrong places. (When) I talk about cutting financial waste, I mean redundancies within our school, not cutting vital organizations, vital support staff. That’s all stuff that has to be brought back, because I do know they consolidated certain programs as far as sexual assault victims go. And that’s not really acceptable, in my opinion.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: Looking beyond your own initiatives, is there anything that the current SA administration is working on that you think you would continue or stop doing?

Andrew Brendel: As far as particular initiatives, there’s nothing I would stop doing. But there are things I would change about how they doing things as they stand. From all of the various student groups I’ve spoken to, almost none of the leaders had ever been in any contact with the current SA president. I think that’s a huge issue. The SA president is a liaison between the student body and the administration. I feel as if our current SA president is focused on associating with the administration than associating with your peers.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: You don’t have any experience at SA, so how do you lead an organization that you’ve never been apart of?

Andrew Brendel: Well, for one thing, I can attend meetings for the remainder of the year to learn about the meeting process. Past that, I’ll meet people and who can give me helpful pointers about how each of meetings are run and stuff like that. But I don’t think that my lack of experience at SA hinders my ability to see issues and address them. To a certain extent, I think it’s just a “observe the issue, come up with a solution” – less of an intricate, complex operation. I don’t think it’s as complicated as they like people to think outside of SA.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: Have you been attending SA meetings?

Andrew Brendel: I have not, so far, no.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: If you weren’t to get the job, what would you do?

Andrew Brendel: I would take all these and press the issue to whoever’s in charge. All these issues are extremely important and none of these issues should be disregarded in anyway. If I saw that the next administration was not addressing them, I would go first to them and still, if it was not able to see any progress with them addressing these issues? Every student has their right to be vocal and express their feelings on issues on campus. Raising public awareness of these issues would be the next step.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: What year are you guys?

Andrew Brendel: I’m a junior.

J.P.: I’m a sophomore.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: In regard to security and DPS, you mentioned Castle parties. SPD made the decision to contain the Castle parties instead of prevent them and stop them. What communications have you had with law enforcement for public safety and security? Have you talked with (DPS Chief Officer) Bobby Maldonaldo or anything like that?

Andrew Brendel: No, I haven’t had contact with any of the DPS staff or SPD staff. I spoke to police officers in passing about certain issues and what they thought. And as far as Castle goes, there’s three sides to this: the university’s policy on it, there’s Campus Hill’s policy on it and SPD’s policy on it. None of the three are aligned and that’s obviously an issue. You’re going to have DPS enforcing one way – it’s just a very confusing situation. That’s something that needs to be cleared up in the future, for sure.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: Why do you think you guys are the best candidates for the job?

Andrew Brendel: I think we’re doing this for the right reason. I’m not trying to run a slanderous campaign. I personally don’t feel like some of the other campaigns are as genuine about their intentions. I think for some of them, it’s less about the issues at hand and advancing themselves personally. And that’s something I hate to see.

The reason I’m doing this – and I have no previous involvement – is that I’m fed up with seeing all the issues. I’m very passionate about these issues and I’m willing to do whatever it takes. And the best way to do that is to run for SA president to be in the best position to address these issues.

Why we’re the best? It really just comes down to my drive. I will not relent. I’m not afraid to argue with the administration. I’m not to stand up to them. After all, we are their customers. I’m in the business school, so I know customers come first. You know, a completely unhappy customer base? Then they’re going to lose customers. Ultimately, they are at our command to a certain extent.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: Going to your 5th point about SU’s relationship with the city of Syracuse, as a SU student, why should I care about the community?

Andrew Brendel: It’s not my job to make you care. It’s my job to show you why you should care. I can show you the horrifying statistics, I can show you statistics about where people live, and it’s upon yourself to care – it’s not my position to make you care. I can show you why should care and then how you can help.

JP: We think that living in Syracuse and having the community around us, which is a very poverty area, because of being the number 1 poverty for blacks and Hispanics. We as Syracuse University need to be involved with programs to also help that community – inside our community and the community around us. We can help those poverty areas become better and have a safer community around our community.

Andrew Brendel: Also, we are an academic institution and our care should be centered in academics. In the Syracuse City School District, 96 percent of students attend underperforming schools. I think 51 percent of students graduate on time. I think as an institution focused on education, that should trouble us a great deal. And it should not be something that we just look over because they’re not paying us. That is the community around us.

Also, just if their lives are better than so are ours. It’s a safer community around us, it’s a safer community here. We’re one community. It’s all connected. It’s not like two distinct, two separate worlds.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: As far as local involvement goes, is that something you think students should be involved with or should that be spearheaded by the administration. Where does that balance lie?

Andrew Brendel: I think that it should be a joint effort. I think that the administration is the one with the capital that they can offer. Students can offer the volunteer hours and go down to homeless shelters, the Syracuse Rescue Mission… center. Students can volunteer their time, whereas the administration can volunteer their influence, financially and in general.

J.P.: I’m pretty sure a big event [Big Event] or it’s for that same thing for that community: why would you put that at the end of the school year when people can’t help anyone? If you put that at the beginning of the year and they can see how they can help our community, and then expand throughout the entire year. Not put it in April.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: You mentioned the university having the capital and then you mentioned academics and how the university is supposed to be interested in academics. SU just announced a $7 million deal with the city – $4.5 (million) for general services and $2.5 (million) for programs on the south side and initiatives with the city. Do you think that that $2.5 million would be better invested in SU the institution and us as customers, rather than into the city?

Andrew Brendel: Yeah, but I think that they have so much money at their expense that they can do that without it hindering their ability to serve us as customers. I don’t think that that’s really an issue.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: What would be an example of something that you would want to implement if you were involved in the city and wanted to focus on education?

Andrew Brendel: Well, for one thing, we could invest in their schools. They’re underfunded, they are poorly performing. So that would be where you start. Better education usually reduces crime and everything follows after that. Give jobs to Syracuse students who go out and tutor these kids. I know that food deserts are a big problem, so if the school wants to sponsor a supermarket project or a food distribution project, that would go a long way helping the community. Donating food, clothing – anything that can help.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: Should the university, in your opinion, be equally investing in the city and students, in like a 50-50 kind of distribution?

Andrew Brendel: Not a 50-50 distribution. Obviously, we’re the paying customers. They have to do everything in their power to service us. So if it came between choosing between the city – I don’t think it’d ever come to that point because of the vast amount of money that they have, they’re not strapped for cash – in that event, obviously, we are their customers, so.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: So do you think that it’s more of the administration having the responsibility or the students?

Andrew Brendel: I think that in large part, I think the administration influences a lot of what the student body does. If they put forth programs, fund programs, they invest in these programs, then students will follow. But as we see now, a lot of students aren’t taking that initiative themselves.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: With mental health, just jumping back to that, there’s a very big stigma with the Counseling Center, that the Counseling Center is for people who are suicidal and have serious mental issues and problems. And when you call the Counseling Center, they say, “If you have a serious issue, you should hang up and call 911.” And their next option, I believe, is if you experience relationship violence, sexual violence, relationship violence, then you press this. And for anything else, stay on the line and we’ll get you to someone.

And that “anything else” is so much, that it contributes to that stigma that mental health is (always) more serious (in its symptoms) than it actually is. Generalized anxiety – you get stressed out a little too much – and I think that one, there are so many people who don’t do that because of … how you view it around campus. Is there anyway that you guys can try and minimize that stigma?

Andrew Brendel: Obviously, I can’t speak for those students on what the particulars are in why they don’t come forward, but in general, as you pointed out, there are issues with the Counseling Center. I think that’s something that needs to be looked at comprehensively. I know it’s just one SA president’s term, but over years, and perfected and slowly made better each year. We could be the ones to start that and we would be more than happy to start that and see just the general year-to-year improvement moving forward. They could improve it by hiring more staff, changing locations, making it more inviting. As you said, I know there are certain medically-recommended ways to have a phone system and present those options the way they do because they want to address the most serious issues first. But I am sure there are ways to make it more inviting and less intimidating for those people who don’t feel that they have as serious a condition, but still need attention.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: You mentioned moving the Counseling Center, which is an infrastructure thing. And speaking of infrastructure, you have the Campus Master Plan, Campus Framework and Fast Forward. So how would you get students to care about Fast Forward?

Andrew Brendel: Well, after all, it’s our campus. If you don’t care about your campus then I’m not really sure I can motivate you. I think everyone has a vested interest here. I think, at least, I naturally just care.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: You’ve never been a part of SA. What are your plans in the case you are not elected?

Andrew Brendel: Like I said, I plan to just work with whoever is elected and — for lack of a better term — lobby my ideas and hopefully get them onto the agenda.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: Would you still want to join SA in some form?

Andrew Brendel: Yeah, I’m not sure because I think the representative elections already happened. As a junior, I’m not sure what role I’ll be able to fill after this, but I would definitely like to be active in shaping the future of our school in one fact or another, no matter what organization it is thorough.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: During your freshman and sophomore years, why were you not interested in joining SA then?

I guess i just like personally keeping to myself more. Over the years I gained more knowledge about the issues on campus. I had my first start of activism — I guess you could call it — when I was living in Watson Hall and the bathrooms were absolutely abhorrent so i took it upon myself to email who was in charge of housing and met with the head of maintenance for housing and I got all of the bathrooms renovated in the middle of the year during winter break. That sort of satisfaction of seeing an initiative and going to whoever I needed to go to to resolve it and coming full circle to have the issue resolved was exciting for me — I like that feeling of accomplishing something. I looked at it on a bigger scale and now I’m here.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: SA has been pretty active in trying to bring ride-sharing services to Syracuse. Is that something you’re interested in continuing?

J.P.: That was actually was one of the things…

Andrew Brendel: I’m not all that concerned with that, personally. But if it’s something that the entire student body wants, as their leader I would represent that to the administration. It’s not a student government — I am representing the will of the students.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: And how do you assess what the student body wants?

Andrew Brendel: I think that’s the biggest failing of the current administration. I don’t think they know or are in touch with what the student body wants in many ways. Just from my own limited experience with this campaign, I’ve met with so many leaders of different student organizations and I have a laundry list of complaints and none of them have ever been contacted by the leadership of SA. that lack of communication between the leaders of our student body and higher leader of student body — the liaison between students and the administration — is the root of much of our problem. And if the future president were to better communicate with these groups, I think it would not be that difficult to find out what the study body really wants.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: But you’ve never been to an SA meeting.

Andrew Brendel: Well I’ve been to one, but have not been there habitually.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: So if you want to voice your concerns to SA, wouldn’t it be best to be in SA and be active and voice those concerns? Does that make sense?

Andrew Brendel: No.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: So you have been wanting to express these concerns, but you haven’t been to more than one SA meeting and you feel that the current administration is out of touch with students and their concerns. So SA meetings are kind of meant to allow for students to bring their concerns…

Andrew Brendel: Well, for one thing, in my opinion and I know some of my peer share this opinion, they aren’t presented in a very inviting manner. Much is not done to say, “Hey guys, if you want to come down to this SA meeting to voice your concerns…” it’s not really poised in that way. It’s more of a closed-door assembly within the leadership right now, at least that is how I have perceived it and I know other people perceive it.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: And that’s something you want to change?

Andrew Brendel: Absolutely. That’s part of just opening up to the leaders of the student organizations. By opening up to the leaders of the student organizations, because we have a large student body, as long as you have the leaders of various groups, you are able to cast a wider net and speak to more people and i think that’s the best way to be in contact and in touch with the entire student body.

Published on April 11, 2016 at 7:47 am