Neutrality

This has been a strange day in a lot of ways. I get up this morning and dutifully check my e-mail for work and because I just check my e-mail regularily. Today's was a bit of a surprise. There was a shouting (ie ALL CAPS) e-mail from the Student Government Assocation urging me to VOTE NO! I thought it a bit odd because there wasn't as far as I know any student referendums on campus or at stake in November. I was right there weren't. Instead the SGA had decided that they were going to represent all students by e-mailing the entire student body and urging them to VOTE NO!

Not urging them to get informed on a major issue that could affect their lives. Not providing both sides of the issue for students to make their own informed opinions. Not maintaining a high standard of neutrality so as to be an unbiased source of student representation on a local, state, and national level. No they went ahead and picked a side.

Did they ask the student body for any input? Send out an e-mail stating that a resolution was coming up to discuss the SGA weighing in on the issue? No. Are they legally allowed to endorse a side in a referendum? I'm unsure at the moment. Gut feeling says yes although they cannot endorse a political candidate so it's very possible that they legally cannot endorse a position for a referendum. I will make an effort to follow that up.

The greater concern for me is not the issue they supported but the precendence it sets for SGA in the future. In the previous administrations while I was well aware of the people serving in the government's standing on issues they kept their personal beliefs to themselves and fought for what they said they would fight for students. Issues like tuition and university budget. They made an effort to not get bogged down in divisive political debates where the student body was split on the issue. No students are split on tuition, they universally want it to go down and most don't complain about a bigger budget unless it makes the tuition go up so these are not at all divisive.

So where do we stand now? Will the SGA tell me how I should vote on every issue they can from now on? Do they think that they have particular insights into the world that I do not? Will there political siding hurt me because politicians in Madison look at them and say: "They tell my constituents to vote against me and issues I support. Why am I approving state funding for them?" Will students ask: "Why are my segregated fees going to a group that is supposed to be neutral and instead are vocally advocating things I am opposed to?" Afterall it's our money so shouldn't the SGA be accountable to us?

Those are my thoughts. I am surprisingly riled up about this hence actual action on my part. I'd urge others to do the same. We need the SGA to be aware of their responsibility to all parties and not just become the mouthpiece of a select few. A tyranny of the majority or the minority is not acceptable!