College Republicans Help Bring Change to CSUN

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(Mark Ciavola/UNLVCR) – This week the UNLV College Republicans (UNLVCRs), through their CSUN Watch project, led the charge against the status quo in UNLV’s student government and helped elect a new student body president. The UNLVCRs urged students to vote against current CSUN president David Rapoport after weeks of documenting corruption, nepotism, and frivolously spent student fees by the president and others at CSUN. The UNLVCRs spent the two days of primary voting contacting members and handing out fliers with the headline “Anyone But Rapoport,” since Rapoport was in a three-way race against president-elect Sarah Saenz and a third candidate who withdrew from the race but remained on the ballot. Saenz received 51.04% of the vote, winning her the presidency outright.

“Under Rapoport, CSUN has lost credibility with students and has ceased to represent the interests of the entire student body,” said Mark Ciavola, president of the UNLV College Republicans. “We hope that Sarah Saenz will stay true to her campaign platform of making CSUN more ethical and more professional, while increasing outreach to students.”

The UNLV College Republicans (UNLVCRs) outlined several controversial items on their flier, which was given to 3,000 students, including Rapoport’s appointment of his friend to a paid CSUN position, supporting the $242,000 RebFest concert with $70,000 in student fees during unprecedented budget cuts – which the UNLVCRs helped to cancel – attempting to pay the same friend out of student fees for RebFest, and bringing a cameraman from Girls Gone Wild to campus to speak on gender roles. Voter participation was up roughly 15% over last year’s election.

“It is a good day at UNLV when the student body refuses to tolerate unacceptable behavior by their student government, and votes for change,” concluded Ciavola.