Some children play house. Some children play cops and robbers. Some children play politics, and those children run the University of Massachusetts Student Government Association.
With every day that goes by, the SGA loses credibility with students. Last week’s events only perpetuated that feeling. The fact of the matter is, an election in which each candidate had an equal opportunity of winning was held. Twenty-four members of the student senate chose not to accept that. Twenty-four members of the student senate chose not accept the votes of their constituents. Twenty-four members of the student senate chose to silence 2,800 students and put into power a man who received one vote.
Senate meetings should take place under a big, colorful tent. At least that way, students will know where to find the circus.
Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) was a big issue this year. I do not think this is the best system to use, but the elections commission did. I couldn’t believe I heard senators argue that the ballot was confusing. What’s wrong with you people? Are you 87 year-old senile citizens from Dade County, Florida? No, you are college students. Read the directions and vote; it’s that simple. Just because some people are ignorant doesn’t mean an election should be thrown out.
No SGA election is going to be flawless. Every SGA election I can remember has been flawed or controversial. This time it was taken to another level, partly because of who won. Title VIII of the SGA bylaws deals with elections. It is absolutely flawed. The entire system is flawed. I have been saying this since I encountered Title VIII last year. This is the senate’s fault, particularly this year. Every year elections commissioners have to be appointed and approved by the senate. This is a process that is done with little care.
I can tell you from being approved by the senate before that the process is quite ridiculous. When I was confirmed as chancellor of elections last year, I was openly attacked for being a rapist sympathizer. A student with a personal agenda took a column I wrote about how security at UMass needs to be improved, calling on administration officials to do more for student safety. This person then misconstrued it by reading sentences out of context to paint me as an evil, rape-condoning person. Almost half of the room believed those lies. At that point, I knew the SGA didn’t care about students’ interests and was too concerned with internal “politics.”
When inevitable election problems occur the senate is ready to blame the elections commission for not doing the job right. They completely neglect the fact that they are responsible for the elections commission and that they are responsible for the failure of the elections. If the elections commission does not do its job right, the senate, which approved the commission for the job, is to blame.
No one will really realize how flawed Title VIII is until they try to run an election. The title gives responsibilities to one person and a commission that they cannot pull off. The title gives no power for the chancellor of elections to enforce the title. In fact in many instances, the chancellor has to act alone because the commission is apathetic. The commission is apathetic because they don’t really want to be there. All of this goes back to the senate.
The senators from Southwest South who thought they were being true to their constituents by not ratifying elections were absolutely wrong. They in fact went against all of their constituents because many of them did vote. All of them had an opportunity to vote. Just because a polling station was closed doesn’t mean they couldn’t vote at any other station. The senators from Southwest South who voted against ratification because a polling station was closed effectually told their constituents that inconvenience was a reason to neglect civic duty. The senators effectively oppose everything this nation stands for and have perpetuated apathy and denigrated the duty of voting. The senators should resign.
I haven’t even begun to tell you about the Grinch who stole elections, Jared Nokes. I told Jared that I have no problem with him personally, but we have to be honest here, the conflict of interests is simply incriminating. If Nokes was smart and honestly did have every intention of becoming president, he shouldn’t have made it so blatantly obvious.
What this all comes down to is that the SGA, specifically the student senate, is incapable of doing its job. They are too busy with the internal nonsense that they have not only forgotten that they are working for the students, but that they themselves are students too. If this continues, the SGA should be disbanded because their inability to operate is insulting to the students who pay for them.
New elections will be held, and make no mistake they will be flawed as well. Still, someone has to be elected. It time the students will elect someone who is going to bring change to this flawed system, even if they have to be elected a second time.
Yousef Munayyer is a Collegian columnist.
