BETWEEN the continuing ethical lapses of the Clintons and the hoopla over whether or not President Bush is living up to his promises of bipartisanship, most University students -- like the country as a whole -- have become skeptical about government. Unfortunately, this distaste seems to factor into our views about student government as well.
Students at the University like to spout the phrase "student self-governance" whenever it suits their purposes, but have an apathetic attitude about student institutions. At times, this apathy probably has been justified, but this year officials have turned over a new leaf. The Student Council deserves praise for both its work as student advocates and for keeping students informed about this work.
When he ran for Student Council president, Joe Bilby made the perennial campaign promise of more efficient student government. However, he also put forward specific ideas for improving student life, including keeping Clemons open 24 hours and beginning plans for a new student center ("The Talented Mr. Bilby," The Cavalier Daily, April 24, 2000). Of course, many candidates for Student Council make popular promises and don't keep them, an important reason students have become disinterested. If the same promises are made each year and never implemented, voting based on those promises makes little sense.
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This year, however, things are changing: Campaign promises are actually coming true. The Clemons idea enjoyed great popularity with student voters last spring, but Bilby has exerted the leadership necessary to actually push a logistically difficult initiative through.
While some of the proposals for the new student center are a little grandiose, Council's involvement from the very beginning shows a refreshing degree of farsightedness. Even though the actual completion would occur long after the graduation of the current students, Council has taken the initiative to become involved. This will ensure that students have a voice from the very beginning of the process, and guarantee that the eventual beneficiaries will have a building that truly serves student needs.
Council has also stepped up its level of advocacy for students both with the administration and outside the school. Council has taken an active role in pushing for more student seating in the next basketball stadium, as well as taking a stand against the now defunct proposed cap on out-of-state students. Both instances represent a change from the usual practice of waiting until a vote against student interests is almost inevitable and then complaining about it when it's too late. The efforts to suppress the out-of-state cap went beyond the usual requests for money to argue an issue that fundamentally affects the future of this school.
Most importantly, Council has done a better job of keeping students informed. It does very little good to work on an issue that captivates the interest of the student body as a whole if very few people know about it.
The periodic e-mails this year from Student Council about its progress come as a pleasant surprise. Although many students probably were tempted to throw it away as junk mail, anyone who read it would find a comprehensive report about Student Council's latest activities. This shows a dedication not to self-serving mass publicity, but to a real effort to involve students.
By bringing Student Council proceedings into the light through the power of technology, Council undoubtedly has opened itself to criticism it might not otherwise have received. Setting up a Web site specific to the efforts for a new student center, and publishing announcements that urge students to use the site increases accessibility and opens Council to criticism it could not otherwise have received. Instead of shrinking from this, however, Council has realized that a new center must have the opinions of rank and file students, not just officeholders, to prove itself worthy of the considerable expense involved.
In an age of frustration with national, state and local government, Student Council's revitalization provides a refreshing exception to the rule. By actually following through on campaign objectives and becoming proactive on issues of importance to students, Council has taken away students' traditional excuses for apathy.
Many of the new proposals will no doubt inspire controversy. Some representatives will be voted out of office for substantive reasons, as opposed to lack of campaigning or making culturally chauvinist statements. Students can finally grumble about what Council is doing, as opposed to what it has left undone.
(Elizabeth Managan's column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily.)
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