In the last issue of the Activist, I wrote an article about Student Government, for which I have received several letters of discontent. My article was an opinion article where my point was very simple: our student representatives (Student Government) are not making an impact on the students. The average student at Raymond Walters doesn’t know about Student Government. To prove this point, I have collected a petition of signatures from students claiming that they do not know the names of any of our student representatives, and some even claim that they didn’t even know about the government at all.
If you refer to my article from UC’s The News Record titled “Elections difficult at RWC; Open positions in SG result in delay,” you will see comments from students such as “There are elections?” and “We have a student government?”
Last week I wrote an article, my third article on the subject, about Student Government special elections. I have more than rallied for student support of the elections with no support from the government. For support in campaigning and promotions, all I see in the hallway are advertisements for SAC and various events put on by Student Life.
One letter I received was from Mike C. Whitener, who respectfully requested that his letter be printed in this issue. My first reaction to the article was shock, that someone would become so personal over the article that I wrote. I immediately assumed that it was a member of the government, but after going over my notes I noticed that he has the same last name of the Interim Treasurer, Leah Whitener.
Well, Mike, to reiterate your finer points, you say that I am an embarrassment to the paper and myself and that my comments discredit my paper and myself.
I did say that I knew little about the government, which was a misquote on myself since I have written three articles. The better quote would be to say that a majority of the student body knows very little about the government.
Mike also stated that if I were a true journalist I would have done research to find out who were the student representatives, and what they had on their agenda. As a journalist I did my research, but my point was that the government doesn’t represent itself enough. The question that I should have asked is whether it is the job of the students to seek out Student Government, or Student Government’s job to seek out the students?
Your answer to that last question was in your letter, when you said, “Possibly you think that it is the students’ responsibility to seek out.information on their own?”
No, Mike I don’t think that it’s the students’ responsibility to seek out their student representatives, no more than it is my job to report their responsibilities. It is their job as the elected officials to be there for the students.
If my petition or past articles aren’t enough to convince Student Government officers that they aren’t doing a good job representing themselves (letting students know that they exist and who they are, campaigning for elections), I have it on good authority that roughly 100 people voted in last year’s elections, which is around three percent of the student body.
I am not sure how you can argue with that point, except to say that it is the students’ fault, or mine. As far as the idea of having backups for vacant positions, I guess that’s hard to do, since, according to Chris Parker’s article in the Activist from May of last year, the only position that had two students running was Vice President of the Cabinet. All the others had only one candidate.
The second letter of discontent came from Mr. Thomas, who claimed that I just hadn’t looked hard enough. Before I answer Mr. Thomas’s letter I would like to quote what is on the RWC website under Student Government: “Student Government is run with the guidance of Student Life. Students elected to serve on Student Government represent the entire student body at RWC by serving on college committees, passing bills and policies, and communicating student concerns to college administrators. If you would like to speak to a Student Government officer, or become a government representative, stop by the Student Life Office.”
This is all that is available on the website without a password. There are no pictures or descriptions of who is what–unlike the UC website, which has a picture of the President as well as descriptions of who is doing what.
I sought out some of these students that are studying ophthamology (the study of the eye and its diseases) and asked them to show me the posters from Student Government. While I was walking to the places that you told me posters would be (Muntz, SAHB, and the Flory Center) I noticed a couple of posters. The first poster that was scattered around the university was for “Make your own music video,” which had no SG distinction on it.
The second poster that I saw was for the Career Fair, which was labeled Career Services, and the third poster was for Valentine’s Day candy and again had no SG distinction on it.
Looking back on the description on the website, I don’t see fundraising for Student Government anywhere. I then had the same ophthamology student show me the files in the library. I was surprised to find the minutes there, but then was equally surprised to see how badly updated they were. There were three meetings on file, Mr. Thomas, with the last one occurring on September 27.
I read over the minutes and saw some talk about fundraising, updating the SG computer, talk of handbooks and ID’s, which the website designates as Student Life, and promotion ideas for the special elections. And lastly you said that the Activist regularly has members at the meetings. You must be talking about Linda Armsey, who was present once.
I would like to say again that I understand the purpose of Student Government, but when I look at ours I don’t see any accomplishments, and I shouldn’t have to look.
If you, Mr. Thomas and Mr. Whitener, still believe that I am wrong and lazy I would be willing to sit in at the special elections and you can prove to me how much the student body cares.