Anthony Vargas: Experience Gets the Job Done
Anthony Vargas Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 10:34AM in Law Students Association (LSA), Press Releases 
There is a great deal that the LSA can do to advocate for law student needs with the administration at BC Law and at Boston College in general, and it is important to understand that the LSA does so with a variety of logistical, budgetary, and bureaucratic restraints on a regular basis. The best person to lead the LSA is not the candidate making the most promises to the student body, but the person equipped with the knowledge, experience, and track record to be an effective president. I am the best qualified candidate for the position of LSA president because I have the most nuanced understanding of how the LSA functions and how to accomplish the most given those realities.
For two years, I have had the privilege of serving the student body on the LSA’s Elected Board as both a 1L Rep and a 2L Rep. The Elected Board is in charge every aspect of the LSA and its committees (ABA, Academic Services, Alumni, Appointments and Promotions, Community Service, Diversity, Elections, Public Relations, Special Events, Bar Review, Sports, New Students, Career Mentoring, LRAP, Finance). In that capacity, I’ve been involved in the oversight of every event and activity that the LSA has engaged in, including Ski Trip, Boat Cruise, Law Prom, Softball, 1L Orientation, and monthly Bar Reviews.
Because I understand the power of the LSA and its role as the governing body at our law school, I’ve been able to spearhead:
- Changing the method in which 1Ls choose electives from the unfair 0-99 point scale (game theory driven) to a simple ranking system
- Compiling a job survey to provide students with better employment resources
- Providing events which cater to our diverse student population (Nutcracker Ballet, Basketball, Hockey, Football, BBQs, Ice Skating, Blue Man Group, Tailgates, Carnivals, etc)
- Creating the First Annual Half Way to the Bar… BQ for 2Ls
- Designing a t-shirt sale to increase LSA funding for other activities
- Adding a second microwave to the cafeteria to alleviate the long lines
- Getting a direct shuttle from Cleveland Circle to Newton Campus in the morning last year
Although well-intentioned, lack of experience with the LSA leads to many ideas which are simply impractical or completely beyond the scope of our organization. For example, the food/coffee in the cafeteria is not of the highest quality, and is unquestionably overpriced. This issue, however, is completely out of the law school’s hands. The undergrad administration controls all aspects of the cafeteria, and the food is priced the way it is because BC cafeteria employees receive some of the best benefits in the state. It would be great to have picnics, bbqs, or gatherings on a more frequent basis. The problem is that the LSA is funded by a fixed percentage of the activity fee each student pays in tuition, which provides a lot of budgetary restrictions. Further, the undergrad administration specifically prohibits on-campus organizations from serving food near the cafeteria or yellow room.
I have many practical ideas that can be accomplished within the next term:
- Continue offering more events that reach out the diverse population we have at BCLS.
- Increase awareness of what the LSA is doing so that we can get feedback on how to better serve every student’s needs
- Eagleionline is excellent resource that can be used to poll student opinions periodically, and as a forum where students’ opinions can be heard.
- A closer tie with Eaglei could also lead to a school wide book sale/exchange program, updated professor evaluations and even an updated alumni directory.
- Our meetings are already open to everyone, but we could start having a monthly meeting in the yellow room to increase awareness.
- We need to increase our level of communication with the undergrad administration to ensure that their blanket policies don’t adversely affect us.
These are just a few of the many ideas I have, but please feel free to contact me or post a comment below if you have any questions or would like to hear more.
As the only candidate with any experience on the Elected Board, and a track record demonstrating my commitment to BCLS students, I am the most qualified to serve as your LSA President. Thank you for your consideration and I hope to receive your vote on election day.
Reader Comments (10)
I was in section 2 last year as a 1L and always felt that Anthony and Jeff did a great job of representing our needs to our professors then, and to the student government in general--and that both of them continued to do so this year as 2L reps.
I think that Anthony was an approachable liaison between our class and LSA this year and we would be lucky to have such a thoughtful and well-spoken person be in charge of the LSA next year. I definitely get the feeling that he is the candidate who cares the most about the students and being a good LSA president and the least about his own importance--which is more than Nate and Dylan can say.
Your experience on the Elected Board does not preclude the other candidates from knowing what the LSA does and how it operates.
Your comments about ideas that are "impractical or completely beyond the scope of our organization" seem directly aimed at Nate, and I suppose I see what you mean, but I also don't see anything in your suggestions going forward that hasn't already been proposed by the other candidates, specifically Dylan in his previous two posts. He seems to have just as much experience working on these issues, and also seems to have been more active in ACTUALLY reaching out to our campus.
Can you tell us why we should believe that you'll be more communicative with administration and student body when you haven't seemed to put in much effort in this campaign?
Why have you omitted your current position on the LALSA e-board from your list of experience? Seems more important than being a hall monitor.
Have you been a positive asset to the Committees you have served? I have heard you were quite antagonistic during Diversity Committee meetings and would attack other Committee members in ways that would not advance any of the Committee's initiatives. What exactly is your stance on affinity groups and LSA's need to better fund diversity initiatives next year?
I see two glaring hypocrisies in your platform Mr. Vargas - two that are NOT your original ideas and are ideas that a former 2L rep was consistently persecuted for:
"Continue offering more events that reach out the diverse population we have at BCLS."
"Increase awareness of what the LSA is doing so that we can get feedback on how to better serve every student’s needs."
Considering past conduct during Diversity Committee meetings and your seemingly calculated omission of your own position on the eboard of an affinity group I fail to see your qualification and dedication to offering more events to each out to the diverse population. As the former 2L rep was criticized harshly for making her section and classmates aware of what LSA was doing and the many pictures of you and your cohorts getting twisted at bar review I fail to see how the status quo will change under your presidency.
not convinced,
some of us appreciate Anthony's method of not bugging us day in and day out about his campaign. he seems to have a rational take on what the LSA is, what it should do and that in the scheme of our law school lives, it really isn't the most important thing happening. i appreciate him not being on a power trip, frankly. and that is why I just voted for him.
Whereas I voted for him because he is dead sexy.
2L,
If that's how you feel, you're entitled. But I've never felt that campaigning or raising awareness is "bugging" us, nor that putting effort into something equates to being on a power trip. I figure that's what all of us are here for: to work hard. I'm assuming those comments were directed at Dylan, and personally, I think he's done a great job. Which is why I just voted for him.
I was actually talking about Nate and his mail merge email to me when I don't even know him. I think posting their platform on eagleionline and making themselves personally available to people who have questions or suggestions is sufficient. I don't need to be contacted either by email or facebook, especially for what is the equivalent to a high school popularity contest. The candidate forum hosted this week is the forum for candidates to inform those who care about what they stand for. For the rest of us, leave us alone. I really couldn't care less about LSA.
I found Anthony to be the least intrusive of the candidates. I appreciated that. I voted for him for that reason. If you need more info, there are ample non-intrusive opportunities to hear them.
2L,
So you don't care, and thus don't want to be bothered about it, so you actually go out and vote. And you vote based on who bothered you the least? And then you come on here and bother everyone about complaining about being bothered? Hypocrisy is fun.
Actually the point was to simply point out that some of the "campaigning" others do is irritating and unnecessary. Do I care? Not really. Because so far I have not seen anything really different in LSA as new people take over. I think any of the candidates who are on there will do very little to change the structure or the activities that happen. Anthony seemed to frankly be the most realistic about that. Overall the student body expects bar reviews, boat cruise, ski trip and law prom. As long as those things happen, I doubt anyone will care much what happens and if they do, there is probably limited funds to make much else happen. I think people take their campaigns way too seriously. And I'm calling them out for it because it's ridiculous.
Hypocrite or not - I'm not emailing any of you individually to bitch about this. I'm not stopping you in the hallway to discuss it. I'm not asking you to join a facebook page to oppose this type of campaigning. I'm commenting on an Eagleionline article. That is hardly intrusive.
E-mails?!?! Face-to-face interaction?!?!? Facebook solicitation?!?! Where will it end?