Student apathy, poor communication and less than acceptable levels of student engagement is the proverbial elephant in the Student Union Building.

Seemingly unsolvable by any one candidate for elected office, these very same individuals have overused the issue to the point where many believe it has fallen into the realm of redundancy, the province of pandering. Amateur election rhetoric at best…

There are two reasons behind this sorry state of affairs. On one hand, the prescriptions offered by the average candidate tend to take on a top-down approach that usually involves "liking" a page or "following" a stream – the alleged paradigm- shifting social media solution that no one else has thought of yet.

On the other hand, the second instance is the conveniently ignored, longstanding lack of grassroots democracy between elected official and constituent outside the election period. When we no longer approach unfamiliar faces to inform them of our ideas, when we cease to engage our peers in the ongoing democratic project, when we stop pursuing our members perspectives, is where we lose our true mandate. It neuters any inspired top-down solutions. And it erodes the long-term confidence of students in their Society.

"Speaking with my consituents" can no longer mean "speaking with other student government types". The conversation must expand.

The next President of your Student Society will no longer rely on a mere open door policy. The next President of your Student Society will spend time, every working day, on the ground, reconnecting students with their society. Students deserve more than a facebook page, twitter stream, tumblr account or even a slick website. Students deserve a President committed to building genuine first-hand relationships with them, day in, day out, during elections and most importantly, beyond.

My Pledge – 1,000 Ambassadors Project:

Student indifference toward the AMS will persist until elected representatives continue conversations with voters past the polling station. Knee jerk skepticism to this idea, as mentioned earlier, is inevitable. That's fine and healthy. But my promise to you in this campaign is simple, measurable, transparent and comes with consequences for failure.

"I pledge to re-engage 1,000+ students, who I have no previous relationship with, from all across our campus, over my term as President, to hear:
For every week that I fail to meet my weekly goal (at least 20 students a week), I will donate 1/3rd of my weekly AMS salary to the AMS Endowment (or Foundation, pending approval of the Endowment). Additionally, if I fail to meet my goal of at least 1,000 students in authentic conversation on the issues, I will donate any eventual bonuses I may receive as President to the AMS Endowment."

The next question is, "how do we, as constituents, keep track of this project's progress, or lack thereof?" As part of the project, I will maintain an active blog that will be updated regularly with details of each conversation that takes place. If a student is unwilling to speak publicly (i.e. identify themselves by name, online), I will still publish the conversation while preserving the student's anonymity but I will not count the conversation toward the project's goals.

Ultimately, this is not the magic-solution to the society's student engagement problem. However, I do think it's the sort of real first-step that can help to build the necessary culture of consistent outreach among both candidates and sitting elected officials with their constituencies.