Impact Party’s Name Will Change, but Corruption Will Remain
There is a storied history of the corruption-plagued, nepotistic majority party in UF’s Student Government coming to the conclusion that its reputation has been tarnished to a point where only one thing can keep its leaders in power: a rebrand.
That time has come for the Impact Party.
The history of “System Party” rebrands goes way back in UF history, but let’s start a decade ago.
Following an email scandal where Gator Party-affiliated Student Government officials were caught colluding to keep minority party members out of Student Senate positions, Gator changed its name to Unite Party just in time for the Spring 2009 election.
Unite, though, proved to be scandal-prone as well.
In Spring 2010, Unite Party supporters were caught in the infamous “Unite Tapes” rewarding voters with alcohol in return for “I Voted” stickers and refusing to let pledges eat until they vote. (Fun fact: current Student Government Advisor James Tyger is heard on these tapes giving a pep talk to Unite supporters. Interesting, right?) Then, in Spring 2012, the Unite Party-affiliated Student Senate president pro-tempore was seen throwing away stacks of Alligator newspapers that reported: “Muschamp endorses Student Government VP candidate.” Perhaps because that VP candidate was a member of the minority party.
Once again, it was time for another name change. In Fall 2012, Unite Party became Swamp Party.
Swamp lasted a couple of years until disaster struck: they lost an election. In Fall 2015, Swamp Party became the Impact Party after Swamp’s defeat to the insurgent Access Party in the Spring 2015 election.
Impact has taken a number of hits over the last couple of years. In Spring 2017, Student Body President-elect Smith Meyers was arrested after a drunken “attempt to start and knock over two Harley-Davidson motorcycles” on a Spring Break excursion in Key West.
That fall, Inspire Party formed and captured 20 seats in the Student Senate. In Spring 2019, Inspire secured one-third of the Student Senate, taking away much of Impact’s power in the Senate.
Now, Impact leadership is facing criticism from several student organizations that have been denied funding for planned Fall 2019 events after an Impact-led overhaul of the Student Government finance laws.
Meyer’s scandal, the sustained presence of a sizeable minority party in the Senate, and Impact’s mismanagement of student fees has led the party to determine that it’s time for a change. A change in name only, though.
Impact has hinted at this change through a couple of not-so-subtle actions in the Student Senate this year.
First, Senate President Libby Shaw and Senate President Pro-Tempore Emily Dunson (who have both ran with and been elected with Impact Party) quietly changed their affiliations to independent, but have continued to consistently vote with Impact Party in Senate. Now, just last week, a few Impact senators publicly renounced their party and became independents too.
Taking into consideration the above history and recent events, expect Impact to have a new name in the upcoming elections on September 24th and 25th.
Don’t be fooled, though.
Just like when Gator Party became Unite Party, Unite Party became Swamp Party, and Swamp Party became Impact Party, nothing about the majority party will change. As much as they will try to convince you otherwise, power will be concentrated in the bloc system, minority voices will be silenced and abused, and the System will persist until the voters decide that it’s time for a change.
And believe me, it is.
