We wish we were surprised when news came that former student body Treasurer Andrew Kerr had tendered his resignation.
Kerr, who also serves as the Scout business manager, told the paper this week he was simply moving on to other activities.
Fair enough.
What he didn’t say was why.
But looking at the prevailing attitude coming from Senate last semester, it wouldn’t be speculation to say frustration had to play a part. In fact, it’s a wonder he was the only one, student body officer or general assembly member, to tender a resignation.
This isn’t the first time we’ve expressed concerns with Senate in this space. It would be nice if it would be the last.
It’s a shame that Senate, and the student body, won’t have Kerr as a member of that body any longer. He brought a slew of ideas to the table, and those ideas will be missed.
Further disappointing was student body President Nick Swiatkowski’s reaction to Kerr’s resignation.
We would have hoped it would have been a wake-up call, not only to Swiatkowski – who downplayed Kerr’s resignation to an unfortunate level – but to the Senate as a whole.
We could go on from here to delve into the negative. But we’ve been there, and we’ve done that.
It’s a new semester, and we’d like to see Senate treat it as such.
The year isn’t over yet, the current administration still has nearly three months to enact further concrete legislation.
Basically, the student body officers and senators have three more months to forward the student body and leave their mark.
But it’s going to take work. More work, even than past administrations have had to put it.
That’s because of the in-fighting senate has been dealing with since day one. That’s no exaggeration.
The lines were drawn in April, immediately after the elections. Since then, too few people have been able to get along, meaning we all have to suffer.
So here’s our message … again: Cut it out.
No one cares if you’re friends. No one cares if you have your differences.
But Senate is a democracy. Its members, from Swiatkowski on down, were elected to represent the students. They were elected to do what is best for the students.
That’s not what’s been happening, plain and simple. And Kerr’s resignation is just further proof of that.
Respect. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. That’s what it’s going to take to propel senate, and the student body forward.
You don’t have to be friends with someone to respect them. You don’t have to look up to them.
You have to listen to them. You have to consider their ideas. You have to, and this should be obvious, treat them the way you want to be treated.
Swiatkowski has taken a lot of heat this year for the issues facing senate. A lot of that heat has radiated off this page.
But it’s not just him.
It may start with him, but it means everyone who was elected needs to swallow their pride and do what’s best for their constituents.
From here on out, that’s what we’ll expect.
Come April, at election time, we would like nothing more than to swallow our own pride and write about the change in Senate, that the doom and gloom scenarios we predicted were wrong.
So get to it, prove us wrong.
