So I turned on the radio yesterday morning to hear the laughter of a local talk-show host belittling the University of Wisconsin’s decision to ban the shoulder arm of West Virginia’s Mountaineer mascot during Saturday’s football game.

Wow. First question I’d like answered: Who are we paying to think this stuff up? Second: How many hundreds of other people are employed here to pat them on the back and cheer on this garbage?

Thankfully, someone high up on Bascom had the common sense to step in and keep the embarrassment to a minimum. I really find it amusing how the general public reacts to little politically correct snafus like the one we saw yesterday. It’s gotten to the point where all anybody does when something like this happens (the Pledge of Allegiance comes to mind) is laugh, shake their head, and say something to the effect of “That, right there, is so Madison.”

It never ceases to amaze me how the bureaucratic left, the ones that run this university, must agonize over decisions that have absolutely no significant bearing on the lives of the people they seek to influence. But I do have to thank them for feeding me some material.

As I said, however, laughable behavior such as this is nothing new; especially here on campus, where, in the seat of our very own junior bureaucratic left, there are going to be some changes that may well produce some priceless Madison moments of common sense dysfunction this year.

Over the summer, ASM has gone through a significant personnel overhaul, two opposition factions will battle for control of the council, and we are about to have a new dean of students in office for them to tussle with.

Wait. Did I lose anyone there? Stop shaking your head and searching for the crossword puzzle. Yes, you are headed for another Herald Op-Ed rant about our floundering student government. I might have had you going for a while. . . I started talking about something sports-related to draw you in, and I’ll admit that was pretty cruel of me, if not a wee bit sneaky. But please, just humor me, and remember I’m new at this.

So on to the task at hand.

It’s a sad comment on such a notoriously political campus, but average students don’t give a damn about campus politics or administrative policy, and average students make the choice, whether conscious or unconscious, to remain uninformed about the goings on of their student government.

So why is this? Average students, much like average citizens, are only (and understandably) drawn toward political involvement insofar as it may have an effect on their own day-to-day lives. It has been said that in politics, perception is reality.

But the sad reality of this campus’ situation is that student government fails to do anything to stimulate that missing perception in the first place.

Instead, ASM spends the bulk of its time and energy pouting behind closed doors at 2 a.m. about why no one cares about them. Then, at the end of the semester, they congratulate one another on how well they have facilitated great discussion for the past several months.

So what is to be done? Nothing complicated. No new constitutions, no coups.

ASM doesn’t even need to get serious. This is college; serious stuff happens when you’ve got two kids and a mortgage. Let’s just start out with getting practical.

Average students, no matter what color or creed, don’t spend a whole lot of their daily routines agonizing over the lack of diversity on campus or the need for greater facilitation of some leftist wacko Marxist organization’s banter over more funding for sidewalk chalk on Bascom Hill.

What Joe College does care about is how Bascom Hill turns into the only paved sledding hill in town each winter, yet he is still expected to negotiate it three times a day.

My proposed ASM resolution No. 1 for this semester? Take all of those disputed seg fee dollars and put them to use — save my bum and countless others; cough up the tuition tax dollars necessary to get some salt on the damn sidewalks.

And do something about those parking ramps that seemed to slip under the radar screen last year.

Bottom line: Accomplish something that isn’t controversial, isn’t political, isn’t emotional. Accomplish something that works. Then yell about it. Then do it again.

Now, this isn’t to say the student government establishment hasn’t had some good ideas in recent memory. They have.

Bus passes? Brilliant. SafeWalk? Great. Rape Crisis Center? Excellent. Subsidies for UHS? I love it.

But how many people don’t access the bevy of great programs ASM sponsors simply because they don’t know about them?

I don’t care about voter turnout; I don’t care about parties and the makeup of the board. The vast majority of UW students don’t know who or what ASM is. If Madison student government wants to survive, it simply needs to generate some tangible results. Something people can see, access, and recognize. Our student government needs to get its hands dirty, get busy, get building — and scream about it all the while.