There comes a time when students have to stand up for their rights. College students are kept in a state of arrested development by their elders, are treated like children by their professors and are denied the same consideration and voice that every other adult has. And when the agency of those students is stripped, someone must stand up and state clearly, in one, unified and bold voice: “FUCK THIS SHIT, I’M GOING HOME.”
During last Wednesday’s Student Council meeting, that’s exactly what three representatives — Max Love, Theo Sharpe and Colin Ingram — did. During a special meeting of Student Council intended to introduce the Union Naming Referendum, the council also brought up a bundle of legislation approving ASM’s intern projects and a responsibility act for committee chairs.
Unfortunately, the latter portion of this agenda was, according to Ingram, added rather abruptly, and the representatives felt there was not enough notice to properly debate the item. In fact, the special meeting had barely enough members to maintain quorum. Because of this, Love, Ingram and Sharpe took it upon themselves to end the meeting by walking out.
To be sure, there may be problems with agenda setting and proper notification of these issues. And maybe there are some legitimate grievances from Love and Co. with ASM leadership in not making enough of an effort to inform all members of its body what they’re discussing ahead of time. Again, these are all maybes.
But regardless of that fact, ending the meeting through some general pouting reduces what is already a difficult and ramshackle process of “legislating” for the student body into nothing more than a platform for grandstanding and whining. And when you’re doing that during an ASM meeting, not many people will hear you anyway.
Furthermore, ending the meeting solved nothing. Certainly, the last two actionable agenda items were cut off by the vote, but the intern legislation was decided upon (with one intern project being postponed). If the meeting was ended to make a point, then it was poorly made.
While Sharpe and Ingram’s decisions are regrettable, Love’s were downright absurd. Not only did Love walk out of the meeting by claiming confusion and frustration on his blog, but also he attempted to contact a Herald reporter when outside of the meeting to determine if his efforts had actually resulted in a loss of quorum — the reporter refused to answer. Besides trying to use our reporters as a conduit for his own ends, it speaks poorly of Love’s treatment of Student Council. We understand that ASM is not the paragon of virtue when it comes to student representation, but to go out of your way to reduce its relevance with a stunt like this is, frankly, pathetic.
