Last week, there was another article published in the “Senioritis” column from a particularly, well, for lack of a better word, bitter member of the student body. The article addressed in large part the Student Government with some valid concerns and suggestions, some plain misconceptions, and finally, some downright insulting remarks.
I will say as a preface: my goal in authoring a letter to the editor is not to call out Joe for his opinions. Frankly, I’m glad he has them. Rather, I hope to clear up the misconceptions that are common to this campus as a whole, and maybe even inspire some positivity in the student body to counteract what has recently become quite simply a complaints column on the second page.
So, let’s dive right in, starting with a positive: The Stute and how it’s funded. Last week’s column brought forth what I think to be a crucial point in the fact that The Stute is, at least in my opinion, a fundamental part of this campus — not an activity that should have to worry about the possibility of a student senate striking printing from the budget. I sincerely do hope that the SGA takes a good long look at this in the near future. I also think it would have been more valuable to, ya know, shoot an email to those who have the opportunity to change the process (sga@stevens.edu in case you were unaware). But, if the preferred method of communication these days is to rant in a newspaper column, then who am I to say any different?
Let’s talk about the freshmen. First off, they are not morons. A moron is someone who is “notably stupid or lacking in judgement.” From the debate I watched, the freshman Senate candidates don’t seem to fit either of those two criteria.
What they are is naïve, but that is not something to reasonably fault them for. They did have to be spoon-fed some information about the current state and the future of the school, but their ability to respond to this information, and their ability to process it and form an opinion on it is what I want to see as a voter. If you watched the debate, the candidates provided some fair opinions about some pretty important stuff, like their stances on the vision of President Farvardin and their opinions on the priorities of the student body. By the end of it, I was pretty pleased with my understanding of the candidates even if there were some dry points throughout. But hey, that’s why this is in the opinion section of this issue.
This brings me to my final, and most aggravating sentence in the last “Senioritis” column that stated: “By joining the SGA, the most you can do is influence the way the Student Activity Fee is used.” Now, a year ago, I would have whole-heartedly agreed. Back then, the SGA got a budget number from the Office of Student Life, divvied it up how they saw best fit (and take nothing away from the senators and Cabinet of the time; dividing more than a million dollars every year is no small feat), and called it a year.
But, if you have had any inkling of an interaction with the SGA this year outside of budgeting for your organization, you know full well that things have changed. For example, there are some pretty important administrators showing up on a Sunday night just to speak to the senate. Dean Ballantyne has come with the hopes to improve both residential life and dining services (including the sub-par catering thus far), Provost Korfiatis has heard feedback from a senator about academic credit for club sports and the gym classes students at Stevens take, and I’ve even heard a rumor that President Farvardin wants to spend some time with the Senate and talk about the future of Stevens.
All in all, the SGA has a lot more of an influence than years’ past, and I think that’s a damn good thing. Without touching on my disagreements with Joe’s opinion of democracy, I will say that some of these new concepts, like outreaching to the student body in different ways and getting a seat at the table when it comes to advancement projects, are a step in the right direction.
The SGA is far from perfect, and it would be flat out naïve to say otherwise. Of course each senator cannot accurately represent 100 people perfectly. Of course the freshman class is unaware of most of the happenings of the school. And, of course, apathy is a never-ending problem here at Stevens. But at least they’re trying. At least they are moving, and from what I can tell, in the right direction. It’s certainly better than the alternative of writing out a laundry list of complaints every week and hoping someone else has even a shred of ambition to do something about it.
So, maybe it’s my own naivety. Maybe it’s that I haven’t yet reached the cynicism of my fifth year where everything suddenly seems broken and entirely unfixable. But it’s these people around campus that are moving forward that keep me wanting to get up and do something, keep me looking for ways to make a change, and most importantly, keep me from catching that ever-deadly “Senioritis.”
