Opinion
New government can succeed
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Also by Brad Vogel:
- A new King for council? (April 20, 2006)
- Segregated fees must be returned (February 20, 2006)
- Diversity initiatives misguided (April 24, 2006)
- Time to move on (February 23, 2006)
- My lovely lady mumps (May 1, 2006)
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So I hear there's a new student government on campus.
Amid ASM's election woes, it's not surprising to see dissatisfaction bubbling to the surface. This new movement, however, calling itself simply the “Student Government," appears to be more than mere whining and protesting. It's bold, it's dynamic and even its name is refreshingly clever. It looks like a real vehicle for change — a genuine dose of competition for a moribund student government.
Even if the Student Government, with its minimalist approach, did nothing while holding the reins of power, students would win. It's far better to have a student government that does nothing for free than one that does a great deal poorly and expensively. ASM's classic "breaking the chains" icon seems now to have been an eerie harbinger of its own demise all along. It is the weakest link.
Admittedly, Student Government has a long row to hoe before it can claim legitimacy. Historically, though, it can take campus events of the past to heart. Student governments at UW-Madison have fallen before.
In 1993, a coalition of students brought an end to ASM's predecessor, the Wisconsin Student Association (WSA). While WSA fell through an official disbandment process, the current movement seems to be taking a more novel approach — simply begin operating as a government without paying the existing government any heed. While most of the members of the Student Government would probably avoid revolution in almost any setting outside of the university, their decision to rebel within the confines of the campus is based on a few solid realities.
First, reform efforts have failed. As someone who worked within ASM for three years as an internal critic, I can confirm the sentiment. Second, other than its power of the purse, ASM has no executive powers to stop a rival student government from rising to challenge it. Third, Wisconsin state statute 36.09(5), which outlines shared governance at UW schools, does not seem to preclude a competition for status as the official student government: "The students of each institution or campus shall have the right to organize themselves in a manner they determine and to select their representatives to participate in institutional governance."
A court ruling on the language of the statue involving UW-Milwaukee prevents the student body generally from selecting shared-governance representatives but does not seem to address competing student-governance organizations.
To achieve legitimacy as the shared-governance entity of campus, the Student Government must take a number of steps toward consolidation. It must demonstrate greater support from students than ASM can muster. Given the latter government's pitiful turnout in past elections, it shouldn't be a terribly difficult hurdle. It must also seek official recognition from the administration without being too cozy, as was a problem with ASM. A meeting last Friday with Interim Dean of Students Lori Berquam marked a notable advancement on this front. It must set its ideals and form down in writing. It must seek recognition from other student governments across the state and nation, as any revolutionary government must do.
Most importantly, though, The Student Government must reach out to all students in ways that ASM has been unable or unwilling to do in more than a decade since its rise from the ashes of WSA. A student government should speak for all students instead of merely taking the money of all students.
To get to every student on campus, the Student Government needs to continue in the vein of brilliant simplicity, reach students by speaking with them in a creative way rather than at them with a heartlessness born of thousand-dollar salaries. The Student Government has to cut through the clutter if it wants to succeed. To do so, it should take a few tips from the more memorable student government movements of the past.
Two groups stand out more than any others when it came to slapping student apathy in the face. In the late 1970s, the notorious Pail and Shovel Party turned student government on its head when it promised to bring the Statue of Liberty to Lake Mendota and flamingos to Bascom Hill. In the late 1990s, the zany antics of the Ten Fat Tigers, a troupe of street performers-turned-satirical politicos, grabbed student attention by unorthodox means. In both eras, politics-as-usual had to be discarded to re-engage a transient student population.
Brad Vogel (bvogel@badgerherald.com) is a senior majoring in political science and journalism.
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Face it, no student government around the country is able to engage their students. What makes you think THIS Student Government will be any different? What makes you think this one will inspire anything but another generation of resume-builders and ladder-climbers?
If you're serious about finding ways to engage the students, look no further than Canada or Mexico, or hell, any other country with higher education. When Canada threatened to raise tuition, just to raise it period, 250,000 students took to the streets of Quebec and SHUT THE CITY DOWN. While Brad and others may claim that this reeks of activism and leftism, the facts remain that students engage themselves when they have a stake in their "government" and are not merely ruled under it.
Student governments all around the country, from little community colleges to USSA, are nothing but breeding grounds for the future politicos of America. Yes, USSA lobbies on behalf of students, but it does not organize them or empower them. Instead, it uses US Dept of Education money to lobby rich senators who don't care what a couple of kids have to say.
The student government model is detached from from the students themselves, and forming yet another student government model is not going to change anything. We do not need another level of governance. What we need instead is a model to unite students and represent students.
What we need instead are student unions. Unless "Student Government" takes this radical step, I urge students to disregard this feeble attempt as nothing but the same old thing with a new name. Students at UMKC and UMass, as well as other schools nationally, are already attempting to take this step to end the bureaucracy and make "student governments" by the students and for the students.
I am signing my name because I stand by the above suggestions, and because as an elected ASM Rep (elected under the ORGASM slate, yes, laugh all you want) I have seen many of the same problems as David et al. However, in my experience within ASM, and having seen the Canadian model succeed and having been in contact with students at UMKC, UMass, and a diverse array of other schools, I know that yet another SGA will change absolutely nothing.
For more information about this model in action, see:
http://www.feuq.qc.ca/index.php?pageName=fonction&langue=english
http://www.cfs-fcee.ca/html/english/about/principles.php
(note: both are national confederations, with local charters at individual schools. Both groups are service-based, not allocation-based, thus are more concerned with improving the education experience than taking your money.)
- John Bruning
current L&S Rep
Brad Vogel, Bob Thelen, Steve Schwerbel, and David Lapidus walk into a room. Hilarity ensues.
The end!
Vogel claims to be an "internal" critic of ASM. I would not describe him as an active or prominent member of ASM at any point in the past four years. At best, he is someone that has dabbled in various aspects of student governance and then removed himself from office with a flurry of anti-ASM rhetoric. Take that or leave that as you will.
More importantly, the recent election debacle has led to talk of this new student government. This movement is being fronted by some of the most hypocritical of students on this campus. For one, Vogel, who is adamantly against the use of segregated fees -- often referring to them as the "bane of his existence" -- serves on the executive board of the UWRCF, the organization which fought to no end and received the highest budgetary increase this year.
Like so much of Vogel's stances and positions on ASM the past four years, the new student government is just anti-ASM rhetoric, with little to no legal or realistic basis for serious change.
Viva la revolution
This is so ridiculous. Not a single ASM "insider" will disagree with the fact that ASM does need reform. However, creating a new student government is hardly the most effective way to acheive the student power that advocates of "Student Government" are aiming for. ASM has a lot of potential to be a powerful voice on campus and it is in the students' best interest to work towards reform rather than disbandment.
I love how the Badger Herald doesn't have the balls to post an opposing opinion. WE DON'T NEED TO READ BRAD'S REGURGITATION OF MAC'S OPINON.