Tyman, Bata fall short on platform promises

By Jeffrey Sadownick and Maddie Wood, For The Miami Student

Cole Tyman and Natalie Bata, student body president and vice president, are working to the end of their terms to fulfill promises from their campaign platforms.

Now, at the end of their term, the Miami community can evaluate Tyman and Bata's year as leaders and whether they delivered their campaign promises.

During last year's elections, Tyman and Bata promised to create student peer advising programs, decrease the cost of parking tickets and include exercise equipment in every quad.

"Anyone can say they're going to make a bigger Rec center or lower parking ticket prices, but they're not going to happen, not at least in the lifetime of the current students," Hees said. "There is a culture of material promises, rather than an effective leadership team that can bring the student body together."

Tyman said he didn't realize all of the responsibilities that came with his position, or how difficult it would be to change current policies in place.

"I did not understand this job until I was in it," Tyman said.

During their campaign, Tyman and Bata advocated for the creation of a peer advising system where underclassmen would be paired with older students in order to seek advice regarding classes, majors and more. Tyman thought peer advising would give underclassmen a more personal and relaxed advising experience than ones with academic advisers.

However, with elections for next term's president and vice president only days away, the program is yet to be implemented, leaving current first-years with the same system already in place.

Nevertheless, Tyman hopes that if everything goes as planned, there will be a mandatory first-year experience course starting the 2016-17 school year. The course would include a peer advising system that allows first-years to find advisers with similar academic interests. The program is designed to give first-year students an older friend or mentor to help adjust to college life.

One of Tyman's most appealing campaign promises was changing the parking ticket system for students with cars on campus. A typical parking ticket (excluding meter violations) currently costs a student $75.

Tyman wanted to change that.

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He believed a first-time violation should result in a warning, a second-time violation should result in a reduced ticket and any further violations should receive the full $75 ticket.

Tyman is still working with the parking and transportation office to implement his plan, however, ASG did reform the parking ticket appeals process to require an explanation for a rejected parking ticket appeal.

Another complaint was Miami's crowded Rec center. Tyman originally promised to reduce crowds at the Rec and make exercising more convenient by adding exercise equipment in every academic quad. Once he took office, Tyman learned the logistics of such an undertaking were too much to handle.

ASG also worked to extend the Rec center's hours, which went into effect at the beginning of the semester. However, after the brief trial run, the Rec decided to return to its regular hours.

ASG also helped raise awareness about sexual assault with the "It's On Us" campaign last month, creating videos and other media projects to spread the word and work with students.

"No, they didn't fill their promises," Ryan said. "But how many administrations truly do? This is the most frustrating aspect to the student body elections and one that needs to be altered."

"Our student body gives too much of a focus on the macro aspect of ideas and not enough on the micro, which is where the changes truly occur. In order for big things to happen on this campus, we need effective and committed team leadership."