Alexandra Watson: Mayoral Candidate Interview

Duncan: How's your day been? 

Alexandra: Pretty good. 

Duncan: Great to have you here. Okay. So obviously, kind of the big issue for this election is, you know, the boarding community, the new rules that have been placed on them and what the mayor will do to advocate for them in student government. So on that note, what do you feel is more important: protecting boarders’ freedom or encouraging their engagement with the community?

Alexandra: I think that if borders feel like they're free, you know, they're going to be inspired to engage with the broader community. It's going to be somewhere that they want to be a part of. I think that you can't have one without the other. But I think that if we put all of our emphasis on them engaging in community,  they're not going to want to. So, I mean, I think we should focus more on maybe a community that boarders would want to engage with. Yeah, but definitely borders should not feel like their rights are being taken advantage of because they live in the dorms.

Duncan: I completely agree and I have heard that expressed a few times. But yeah, it's definitely the general consensus among candidates that it's better to, you know, encourage them than force. Kind of on that note, the reason that has been cited a lot of the time for why these restrictions have been imposed is that the administration feels there's a social gap between the day students and the boarders. And so do you think that gap exists, and if so, do you think it needs to be addressed?

Alexandra:  I mean, I think it certainly does exist. I mean, especially in the younger students, and for international students it’s already really isolating to come to a community where everything is completely different than you’re used to. And so I think it's completely fair that people are going to want to stick with things that remind them of home and stuff like that. Some of my best friends are boarders, but I definitely think there is a gap in the past. I think it’s been changing recently though.

Duncan: Yeah. I may have asked this, but do you think that gap needs to be closed? Is it of utmost importance that the gap is closed or addressed for, like you said, younger students?

Alexandra: I don't think it needs to be closed for the sake of the gap needs to be closed. No one should feel isolated and no one should feel like they're being othered in the community. So I don't want someone to feel like: “Oh, boarding school, like I had my day student friends” or something like that. So I don't know, I think more focusing on making sure no one is isolated is how the gap gets closed. I think it's the same as the last question– you don’t have to force people to interact with the community.

Duncan: So just kind of continuing with that, but more personal to you. Do you think your experience as– kind of, you know, you board here, but you're not in the dorms. You are kind of a half day student, half boarder. How do you think that influences just your general policy and your feelings on this specific issue?

Alexandra: Well, I feel like I honestly just feel really privileged because I get to live in the dorms, enjoy a beautiful campus, whenever I want to, but I don't have to sign out. I can choose when or when I don't want to eat the dining hall’s food. But, I mean, I just feel like I kind of have a responsibility to other boards to make them feel like they have, just as much rights as I do. I mean my brother lived in the dorms, and he got in trouble all the time. Like, I know what it's like. 

Duncan: May he [Gus Watson, who no longer attends Springs] rest in peace [he is not dead].

Alexandra: Yeah. And I don't want anyone to feel like I have an unfair advantage to them. I want everyone to have a great experience like I have. 

Duncan: Yeah. It's great. Shifting gears a little bit, but still kind of on the notion of, you know, student rights and all that. Do you think that the current administration effectively upholds the rights allowed to students in the Constitution?

Alexandra: I’d say that I think that sometimes the main issue is not necessarily the rules being put in place, but it's the way that they go about putting in place the rules and not taking into account student input and not communicating to students effectively when they are put in place. And I feel like they're often kind of treating students like they're dumb; like they can't have their own opinions. And I think that's kind of where the issue lies. Students are reasonably intelligent. We can make our own decisions. We can be responsible for ourselves. And I think that if we worked on that transparency and there was a lot more student input on how those rules were made and how they were announced, I think that would be a lot more in line with our current constitution.

Duncan: All right. Continuing. How do you feel about the amount of power that student government has as mayor? Would you kind of seek to expand that power or restructure how student government operates or even, you know, kind of reduce the amount of power? 

Alexandra: I think that– well, I think student government specifically has a lot of power in the things they do in the day-to-day on campus, but I don't think they have a lot of power, partly over the culture of the school. And over the general attitude of the school. And specifically for the mayor. I feel like that role, since it's not explicitly defined like– there's only a couple specific duties that the mayor has. They have a lot of freedom in that. Yeah, I want to really expand the world mayor as a person who's in communication to the administration and the students. And I want to have a lot more emphasis on what happens in the administration and how that affects the students. 

Duncan: That's great. So just making the mayor kind of more accessible to all. All right. Last thing in your platform you mentioned giving the student government a clear budget. And, you know, I have experience working in student government. It can be kind of tricky to figure out how much money you have to spend, where the money's coming from. So I assume it's informed by your experience as well. So what would a clear budget for the student government look like to you?

Alexandra: So the way the current budget is, there is not– there is a clear student government budget, which is for all the commissioners to use, there is also a mayor specific budget, the club specific budget. And then for the CORs and COCs, they also take part of student life budgets, which makes things really complicated. I think our big problem is, you know, commissioners aren't living up to the promises in the paper, but they don't know the scope of what they do because they don't have a clear budget. So I think for me, that would just look like consolidating the budget and making it even– I don't like the idea of making commissioner budgets, but I do like the idea of making a wider budget for student government as a whole. That way they could choose at the beginning of the semester how they are going to split that up depending on what their goals are. 

Duncan: That sounds great. That’s very unique to your platform; increasing student government efficiency just by allowing the commissioners to understand what they're working with.

Alexandra: Yeah. And I mean when I was COR, I knew what I wanted to do, but then I would have to ask Colvin: “is this $500 ok?” And then I think I'm asking for too much like, but then sometimes it's like $200 for cookies, and that's like, questionable. It could be a lot easier and a lot more clear. Also gives you more responsibilities.

Duncan: Alright great, well that is all I have. Thank you so much.