The Wheel reluctantly endorses College junior and current College Council (CC) Treasurer Omair Kazi for CC President. While we feel he is the most fit to lead CC in a productive direction, we are concerned about his lack of experience and ideas outside of fiscal policy. We hope that, if elected, Kazi will work closely with CC Vice Presidential Candidate Alyssa Weinstein to develop more concrete ideas.
Although Kazi’s ideas may be limited in scope, they are more concrete and constructive than his opponent, College junior and current CC vice president Adam Chan. Furthermore, Kazi’s leadership style, which, he described, focuses on personal relationships with his colleagues, makes him a comparatively better candidate.
Kazi wants CC members to understand their primary role of serving and supporting student organizations through funding. As current CC treasurer, Kazi’s strength is monetary policy. Additionally, as the former treasurer of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) and the Pakistani Student Association (PSA), he has experienced the budget processing from the side of student organizations. As president, he intends to make this budget process friendlier to these organizations.
Kazi wants to shift CC’s mentality of seeing the funds they allocate as CC’s money to viewing it as the students’ money. Consequently, Kazi believes they should treat members of student organizations with greater respect.
Despite our concern about Kazi’s failure to address issues outside of finances, we nonetheless acknowledge the importance of strong fiscal policies. Through the allocation of funds, CC has the power to impact the lives of many students. We therefore recognize the value of Kazi’s experience as treasurer.
While the Wheel endorses Kazi as the better of the two CC presidential candidates, we do so with great hesitation. Though Kazi has strong fiscal ideas, we feel that the CC president must be knowledgeable about all issues that affect the Emory community.
We strongly encourage Kazi, if elected, to work closely with potential CC vice president Alyssa Weinstein to implement many of her concrete and innovative ideas.
The Emory Wheel was founded in 1919 and is currently the only independent, student-run newspaper of Emory University. The Wheel publishes weekly on Wednesdays during the academic year, except during University holidays and scheduled publication intermissions.
The Wheel is financially and editorially independent from the University. All of its content is generated by the Wheel’s more than 100 student staff members and contributing writers, and its printing costs are covered by profits from self-generated advertising sales.
