We received four responses to our questionnaire of Student Government candidates — which is actually a better turn-out than the Spring election.

We received no reply from either the Gator or Impact party, but from four independents: Dakota Cash (Rawlings/Yulee seat), Sean Cubillos (District B), Sam Miorelli (Hume), and Steven Roberts (Hume)

Responses follow…

Dakota Cash
Seat: Rawlings/Yulee

If you are elected, would you support or oppose the following, and why?

* Supporting the creation of a student seat on the Information Technology Advsiory Committee (ITAC) in the Office of Information Technology? (The committee currently has no student members.)
-Yes I would support the creation of a student seat on the committee. Anywhere the voice of the students can, and should, reach is a place that SG must make it reach.

* An SG-financed music downloading program for all students?
-I don’t know about the final cost for such a venture, but I think it would be pretty cool to be able to get the amount of music we have grown accostomed having before Limewire and Kazaa were banned. If its not overtly expensive then yes, I would support it.

* An SG-financed site license for Microsoft software for all students?
-Protection is the best course of action reguardless of other circumstances. If something can be avoided before it becomes a problem then thats the best help possible.

* Working with professors to make course material available online?
-Only to a small extent. If too much is online then there is no reason to come to class, thereby eliminating the excessive need for teachers. This is the worst outcome at any level of education.

* Supporting open access to research conducted at UF or published in UF journals? (Open access means making findings and data freely available online.)
-Absolutly. We are here to learn. This is OUR school, all of us, not just the few scientists. Pride should be given where its due. There are exceptions like privatly funded research and/or secretive research, granted if there is any of that going on of course.

* Supporting the use of free / open source software on university computers? (Free, or open source, software is software that provides certain freedoms to users, e.g. the rights to modify and redistribute. For instance, Mozilla Firefox is free software.)
-As long as they are not file sharing software (which can be used for illegal means) or any other illegal software then every student has the right to use whatever they want. Period. Its the first amendment, not even UF should be able to go against the constitution.

* Supporting the use of open file formats for university documents? (Open file formats are computer file formats based on free, open standards. For instance, Microsoft Word’s .doc file format is not an open format, but a proprietary format controlled by Microsoft.)
-This seems trivial. As long as UF will pay for the non-open formats (which we all have on our computers anyway) there isn’t a problem.