THE CALLS for "change" in the national political arena are so numerous that the word has lost virtually all meaning. Closer to home where tradition is the standard rallying cry it will serve us well to probe the connection between change and the tradition of "student self-governance": a tradition that, like "change," has become almost entirely bereft of meaning.
In Chinese there is a saying that describes a person mauled by a tiger. After being cornered and devoured, the person becomes a ghost working at the tiger's behest. As a ghost, the person willfully lures more victims to the tiger's lair. The role of student leaders at the University today can be described by this saying: "wei hu zuo chang." Members of the administration, except for a few valiant tragic heros, act as the tigers. The tiger's lair, in this case, represents the "system" in which tradition festers.
The question we ask ourselves every year and fail to answer is whether there is someone among us who can fend off the encroachments of the tiger. As student elections loom on the horizon, we must find leaders willing to fend off this beast. But to elect this sort of committed leader is not always that simple. Let us not forget the roar of Howard Dean.
Progress, the myth that the University puts forward in its constant quest for money, is openly embraced by student leaders. Change, progress, change ... Student leaders, myself included, have bought into the mission of taking traditions, further entrenching them, and calling it change. The University prides itself on phantom innovation, luring in philanthropists to make our lives "better." But is Cabell Hall being demolished? Is the quality of our education improving? Where are today's student leaders when it comes to these fundamental issues of education that should galvanize even the most apathetic sloth? Activism has been relegated to the members of our community who lie on the margins. In the "Ethiopian Food Fight" affair, it was not the entrenched "leadership" organizations that came to the fore. Instead, activists who had been left out of the elitist climate of student leadership were the first to respond, and they did so without the personal bonds with which more institutionalized leaders are blessed.
Student leadership emanates from the top, and it trickles down slowly and steadily until it finally reaches the student body, at which point it is little more than a drip. The administration's summer leadership training program, also known as L2K, is representative of top-heavy, neutering efforts to strip away the activism that lurks in the soul of the truly committed student. The average student has never heard of L2K because it is not a program for the masses. It is a week-long program designed for the elite of the University political world. To its credit, the administration works to educate student leaders about the system through this program, and it provides leaders with a site to network with other leaders. The students who participate are well-meaning, and they participate without grasping the elitist net in which they are slowly trapped. They dine with administrators, complete a service project and live together for the week. Despite these great opportunities for a few leaders, what this program ignores is even more important: the average student.
The current structure of student leadership at the University is such that those in power stay in power. Historical lineages of student leadership remain intact. It is no secret that institutional knowledge is a great aid to wannabe student leaders. Legacy students and students in grant programs and organizations that pass on institutional knowledge have great advantages. As a result, vying for political leadership becomes a vicious cycle. L2K, for all its good qualities, serves as another cog in the institutional machine, building personal bonds between a select few and neutering them at the same time. Once one is trapped in the tiger's lair, escape is not an option. Since one's drive for changing the status quo is lost in the process, the only scheme left for political survival is the perpetual recruiting of more ghosts-to-be.
These ghosts, or institutionally-recognized student leaders, while well meaning, are only fractions of what they were before taking high office. Their passion gone, they do what they can to make a difference. But that they become complicit in the system is inexcusable. They should not wander into the tiger's lair in the first place. The time has come to quash this systematic neutering. The time has come to hear the student voice.
This year it is important to remember that the leaders you elect will have little chance to truly mould a new vision for the University. They will be cornered and devoured, and they serve willingly at the behest of the system unless they choose to stand up and revolutionize our elitist system. Until the administration agrees to reform the exclusive nature of student self-governance, student leaders remain little more than agents of the myth of progress. The average student, in turn, is left invisible, a ghost in her own right.
Ryan McElveen is Student Council Chief of Staff and a fourth-year Anthropology and East Asian Studies major.
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