Political Life on Campus – Where Is It?

People would probably give you a very dirty look if you openly admitted you didn’t know the name of the current president of the United States. When someone asked me the name of the president of the UCD student body, I had to admit I wasn’t one hundred percent sure there actually was a student government on campus.

In retrospect, I should have thought about my response a little longer, and realized that I had accidentally attended a presidential debate at the Coffee House once. Still, a couple of months later, I was incapable of recalling the event or the fact that, of course, there is a student government on campus.

drawn by Pete Scully

The debate made absolutely no impression on me for the following reasons:

1)   The CoHo was quite crowded and noisy, and I could not hear what any of the candidates were saying.

2)   The debate coordinators, or whatever the correct term is for the panel of students half-heartedly proctoring the debate, were more intriguing than the presidential contenders.

3)   None of the candidates had the kind of charisma that draws a crowd in. It looked like what I imagine a PTA meeting run by well-to-do housewives would look like. I just felt sure that I had nothing in common with these people.

4)   My presence at the CoHo was largely incidental and I was on a mission to find food.

Overall, the whole event did not seem to be important, mostly because it looked so informal. Moreover, if the president of the student body were important, I would have known about her. I am on campus Monday through Friday and most Saturdays. I would have seen her name written somewhere or at least heard of her accidentally on a lunch break.

On the other hand, the term ASUCD does ring a bell, and that’s probably where the actual power of the student government lies: not in its chief executive, but in the coherence of the whole association. The ASUCD is involved in a myriad of things, from Picnic Day to Unitrans. The ASUCD works hard for the student body. Still, I could not help but question the efficiency and legitimacy of an association whose leaders are invisible. I went online and did a little bit of research.

A somewhat cursory glance at the latest Senate Minutes reveals that there is much I still don’t understand about student government, and also that perhaps it’s a good thing our political leaders are staying under the radar. About the November 18^th pepper spray incident, the Minutes say: “our student body has remained in a state of unrest, as protests continue.” I have yet to see such protests and I remain miraculously unaware of and unaffected by this state of unrest that is dramatically reported to permeate our lives. Where is the proof for that statement? When were the polls taken?

Further down in the Minutes one can read the following: “Thank you, that was really nice. What’s your highest goal since I know you love the association.” First of all, that is regretfully awkward grammar, or the scribe for the Minutes needs to be more careful about the editing process, if it exists. This is not even taken out of context; this is apparently a phrase someone said, verbatim.

The Minutes also mention porta-potties, student housing and “really cool” police bikes. And while this shows that the ASUCD indeed has its hands in many baskets, the manner in which some of these topics are discussed is not as “official” as one would expect from political leaders. Possibly none of our elected officials would be able to stand strong in the absence of the entire association for at least two reasons: 1) the way they express themselves is not quite as eloquent as it needs to be, and 2) some of them simply make wholly unsubstantiated claims. In the spirit of community and teamwork, I’d say this is not a problem. As long as ASUCD is strong, then its leaders will always have the opportunity to be successful despite some imperfections.