By Kelsi Peace, Features Editor
Thoughtful Ramblings
My high school student council always seemed to serve one purpose: battling the dress code. To me, it only seemed to further emphasize our immaturity when the issue we most wanted to discuss as a student body was if our shorts could be two inches shorter than our fingertips. But, to be fair to those who participated in student council, no one approached them with a more worthwhile issue – including myself.
As the Optimist reporter who covers the Students’ Association, I attend weekly meetings, where I observe who participates, who skips, who votes and who abstains. I have been at every meeting this semester and seen each resolution and bill presented to SA – about one per week, in fact. Do you know how SA is spending the portion of your student activity fee it receives? If the answer is no, something is wrong.
As candidates prepared their campaign speeches, slogans and platforms, they had to ask themselves what the student body wanted. And I can’t help but wonder how in the world they ever came to a conclusion. Rarely do I see students in the SA office vocalizing problems they see and issues that touch their hearts.
Few attended the debates; many are likely to skip out on voting altogether.
With so many changes occurring on campus right now, it is more important than ever for students to be advocates for themselves.
About 50 members of Congress and eight members of the Cabinet were elected or appointed for the very purpose of listening to their peers. Are they hearing anything? Probably not.
As members of the ACU student body, we should be speaking up about how we want the Welcome Center to look, who we want in the leadership positions that are available and what we want the pledging process to look like. But 4,000 students can’t sit on the committees discussing these issues. However, someone from Congress or the Cabinet can approach the administration on behalf of students – if they are given something to say. True representatives will act as the voice of the majority, and if a representative doesn’t, the job falls to Congress and the student body to hold them accountable.
The SA office is downstairs, by the Bean Sprout. Suggestion boxes are all over campus. Give your representatives something to say. Hold them accountable to show up at general and committee meetings and be aware of what they are doing.
If you don’t, they may be forced to spend their time passing the college-equivalent of resolutions calling for a change in the hemline rule.
