Editorial: New internal vice president should have council experience

Since former Undergraduate Students Association Council President Devin Murphy resigned from office, USAC has undergone a dramatic shift in leadership. Former Internal Vice President Avinoam Baral has subsequently vacated his position to fill the open presidential role.

Since the internal vice president position is now open, it is imperative that council carefully consider who to appoint to fill the role, bearing in mind a number of essential qualifications, including internal USAC experience and the ability to successfully execute its platforms.

While council will go through the standard open interview and appointment process, there is more to selecting a new councilmember at the midway point than there is during spring elections.

Most importantly, this student must have direct and active experience within USAC, ideally within the internal vice president office.

Because this person will take over the position midway through the year, they will not have the time to learn the ins and outs of USAC over summer, the way a normal new councilmember might. They need to have a familiarity with the office’s bylaws and the bylaws of the council in general, given that one of the internal vice president’s primary job requirements is to make sure that the internal relations of the council function effectively.

Ideally, the new councilmember would be someone from Baral’s previous office, someone who can bring continuity to the office by maintaining the platforms that students elected Baral for and can take over the tasks of the office with relative ease.

Baral was elected on a particular set of platforms, and the new IVP office has an unwritten mandate to see them through.

This is particularly true because the year is already half over, and the time to implement or develop new platforms has passed. The timing of this appointment affects the new officer’s ability to execute any platforms – even Baral’s old ones – effectively. At best, the new internal vice president will likely only begin his or her work at the start of winter quarter.

For this same reason, Baral said he plans to build his Office of the President around the framework already implemented by Murphy.

He said he plans to work with members of the former president’s office to determine how many of them wish to stay involved. Moreover, he hopes to continue a number of Murphy’s previous initiatives, such as the “All of Us” campaign and Cafe Powell, citing their relevance and the work that has already been put into them as reasons to continue.

Whoever takes over the IVP office should strive to do the same with Baral’s initiatives.

Previous councils have already set a precedent for this approach to filling a vacancy after the midpoint.

In April, council had to fill the vacant position of community service commissioner. In appointing the commission’s former assistant community service commissioner, they chose someone with internal office experience, who could continue to move the office’s goals forward with little-to-no interruption. Even more, because he came from inside the office, he was someone commission members already knew and trusted.

It is essential that USAC look for a candidate with these qualifications in order to make sure that the office successfully executes its goals.

Without someone who is well versed in both the workings of the IVP office and council itself, the position of internal vice president position might be left to flounder.