Consensus Building in Student Government
Stephen Rea describes the the challenges of consensus building during his term in Student Government.
Interview on 2015-01-26 00:00:00 -0500
Transcript
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The biggest challenge in student government - and it wouldn't just be my experience, it would be others - is trying to consensus-build,
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get folks on the same page, if you can, with a goal, with an objective, and to do it honestly and fairly and not try to engage in power plays.
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We just didn't do that. We thought we needed to build a consensus, just like when we campaigned.
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We built a consensus for folks that wanted us to be in that position and we went out there and we talked to folks.
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So we tried to work with the legislature to build consensus for the different initiatives that we had in mind.
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That's the biggest challenge, trying to build a consensus within the representatives in student government
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to a) is this a good idea, and then b) if we have to fund it, are we willing to spend the money to support it.
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So those were the biggest challenges, I think, which is true for any legislative body.
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