Student Senate this week approved a new Internal Affairs committee chairman.
To the average student, this means very little. The position oversees, obviously, the internal workings of Senate. Beyond that, the chairman position isn’t of much concern to the student body at large.
What should concern the student body, though, is that majority of the student body officers,with Vice President Tricia Anklan the lone dissenter, brought the same unqualified candidate in front of the Senate general assembly not one, but two times. Two times over two weeks Senate was forced to vote down a candidate the majority of members never supported in the first place.
Appointments to Senate tend to take no more than 30 minutes to approve. Occasionally they will take longer. But to spend two whole meetings appointing a candidate is nothing less than an outrage.
The student body officers are not in charge of Senate. They should be, however , leading it. They should be setting agendas and encouraging senators and their committees to do good work.
We’re not naming the Internal Affairs candidate here because this isn’t so much about him. This is about three student body officers blatantly ignoring the will of the general assembly.
And that, once again, proves the problem we’ve had with the Senate leadership all along.
And that, once again, is further evidence as to why Senate has struggled so much to accomplish anything this year.
There’s a serious lack of leadership. And though the leadership isn’t in charge of the body, if it isn’t, you know, leading the body, it makes for an awfully incapable student government.
Week in and week out we ask, we plead for things to get done. We’ve done everything but beg the Senate leadership to step up and do some work.
But we’ve come to terms with the fact that that’s not going to happen. There are only a few more weeks left under this administration, and spending two weeks forcing a vote on an unqualified candidate for an internal position has made is crystal clear nothing’s going to happen.
So, here we are again, urging anybody reading this to run for a student body officer position.
There are no qualifications to running. Any student is eligible.
Elections are in April, and petitions are due soon. Now’s the time.
There are a select few other positions on campus that allow students as much authority with the university administration. Senate is on of the few organizations on campus that allow students to be change agents, to further the student body.
Student body presidents in years past have accomplished so much for Bradley. Some of that, such as last year’s MAP Grant battle, is matter of circumstance. Others, including, to some degree, Lydia’s Lounge, have been because of relentless work.
So while we’ve been disappointed this year, we’re excited the possibility next year brings.
