Candidates for Campus Y presidency have different ideas for the organization's future

The Campus Y has been an active player in tuition protests this year, but the level of future activism hinges on the race for its next co-presidents.

Unlike last year, when current co-presidents Mackenzie Thomas and Allison Norman ran unopposed, there are two pairs now vying for the leadership positions.

Thomas, who is running for re-election, and running mate Jagir Patel regard the Campus Y as an umbrella organization for its 32 committees.

Their opponents, Laura McCready and Joseph Terrell, want to focus the Y’s energy on social issues, like tuition hikes.

Norman said the two visions are not mutually exclusive. But the direction of the Campus Y this election season depends on the choice of issue-based campaigns versus strengthening existing committees, she said.

The election is Feb. 14, and only dues-paying members of the Campus Y are eligible to vote.

Thomas said she views the Campus Y as a place for students from many different backgrounds to pursue social justice passions of all kinds.

She said that although the committees differ in their topics, they all have the same broader goal of solving social justice issues.

If elected, Patel and Thomas said they hope to increase resources that allow members to pursue individual and collaborative goals.

“We want to provide mechanisms and means to engage in these issues regardless of what you are most passionate about,” Thomas said.

“The mission of addressing poverty is just as much related to environmental impact, just as much related to engaging (freshmen),” Patel said. “All issues, though distinct, are intertwined.”

McCready said she would continue to support committees and that both she and Terrell come from committees. But they have also been the primary leaders of the Y’s activism on tuition.

McCready said she would like to make the Campus Y a home for activism.

“There are a lot of larger societal issues in the world now,” McCready said, citing gay rights, tuition hikes and undocumented immigrants as just a few of the issues that she would like the Campus Y to focus on.

Another goal McCready stressed was to increase collaboration across groups campuswide.

“The Campus Y should be a community,” she said. “It’s about bringing change makers together.”

Terrell said he wants the Campus Y to support programs that reflect the Y’s mission.

He said the Campus Y’s job was to take a stand on social issues, even when it might be difficult or unpopular to do so.

“Are we putting our money where our values are?” he wrote in an email. “And if not, what can we do right now to change that?”

Though the candidates’ platforms differ, their aim is the same, they said — to provide a place that students can be at home while pursuing their social justice passions

“The Campus Y sucks you in,” Patel said. “I started drinking the Y Kool-Aid and that was it.”

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