Clarification appended.
Voting is a simple task, really. So, all students, even the most apathetic, should take five minutes out of their day to vote in Student Senate elections tomorrow. Twenty percent of students bothered to vote in last year’s Student Senate election. Twenty percent. And that was when students could barely walk out of classroom doors without having handbills shoved in their face and demands that they vote no-confidence in President McDavis. With the markedly more peaceful campaigns this year, can we expect a better turnout?
In the past, Student Senate has been accused of being unrepresentative, irrelevant, and, plainly, ineffective. All of these aforementioned complaints may very well be true. However, maybe the effectiveness of Student Senate starts with the students. If we don’t vote, don’t know or care who is in office and don’t utilize the members of the senate, then how effective can they be? If students turn out to vote tomorrow, that would, likely, send a loud and clear message to the administration that Ohio University students are behind this new Student Senate and that it is a representation of the students, and not just made up of a select group of people who selfishly push personal agendas. The administration has looked increasingly at Student Senate to gain their input on serious topics such as: Free Speech Zones, General Student Fee, medical amnesty, the new Hudson Health Center, increased SAC funding and more. Many times students hear about the times that the administration did not consider student’s input, we don’t hear enough about the times when they did. And it is in those instances that neglecting to vote tomorrow could mean neglecting to save money or neglecting to secure your rights as a student.
There are issues Student Senate needs to address next year (besides expecting them to skirt the law and make up more lenient rules exclusive to OU students pertaining to alcohol and drugs). Issues like, while faculty and staff are home in The Plains enjoying family time, students are having to drive past empty 24-hour faculty/staff lots frantically searching for somewhere to park their cars in the evenings and on the weekend. Also, a student paying thousands of dollars for a meal plan should certainly be able to “swipe” his or her card somewhere between Shively and Boyd Dining Halls. With Oasis resting in peace, dining halls limiting their hours, and Baker Center’s outrageously high-priced food (4.95 for a plain hamburger?), the average student with a meal plan has to wonder why the price of the meal plan didn’t diminish along with the options.
These issues and many more are important to us as students, and Student Senate represents us. There is zero excuse for not voting. It’s on the Internet. We can all minimize Facebook for two minutes and vote … wisely. Wisely is the key word. Despite The Post’s and my fellow columnist’s endorsement, Will Klatt would be a horrible choice for a Student Senate president. His entire agenda is to overthrow the administration and an organization he belonged to for years is on the FBI’s watch list! (It may not be the most difficult thing in the world to be added to the list, but it is certainly not the easiest.) Student Senate is not SDS, and Klatt’s presidency would surely confuse the two. Protests, blatant disrespect for authority, and outrageous demands without feasible solutions characterize his tenure at OU. He has already established a negative relationship with administrators, so there is no way they would listen to his demands even if he placed them under the guise of Student Senate. The senate would completely lose its effectiveness under his presidency.
Michael Adeyanju is the obvious choice for president if what we want is real change and an effective Student Senate. He is both intelligent and passionate. He wants to see change at this university in terms of accountability and student input and he is dedicated to bringing about that change in a positive way. He has a working relationship with the administration — one that would help him get things done. People in authority are more inclined to listen if they know that the speaker is dedicated to the student’s experience and making OU have a better reputation. I don’t think students here want incessant protests that result in virtually nothing. I think we care about what goes on and we want our Student Senate to represent us. And I think we should all show that tomorrow by voting in the election. But, maybe it’s just me.
Alissa Griffith is a junior journalism major and a candidate on the AAA ticket with Michael Adeyanju. Send her an e-mail at ag180505@ohiou.edu.
Clarification: The original post of this column did not disclose Alissa Griffith's status as a candidate for Student Senate. She is running for senator for the College of Communications on the Ability And Accountability ticket, which is led by presidential candidate Michael Adeyanju.
Reader Comments
the fact that SDS was being watched by the FBI is completely out of context.
Also, I agree that protests are definitely horrible. Those Boston Tea Party jerks were way out of line.
Also, I believe that you should have mentioned that you are running for a senate position with the AAA party
Always be wary when someone claims a candidate is "the obvious choice."
Amending the online article while seemingly "forgetting" to mention the fact that she is running for AAA...How's that for journalistic integrity?
Either way, her endorsement only serves to bolster the strength of the Birthday Party. Her and CNash have really helped the Birthday Party out with their "student senate will be destroyed by Will Klatt" drivel that just makes students want to support the Birthday Party more.
edit: "Amending the online article while seemingly "forgetting" to mention the fact that she is running for AAA in the printed paper...How's that for journalistic integrity?"
poorlittlepoorboy: i am in support of neither ticket. i am in support of the institution that is student senate.
i dont know what an aaa ticket would do, if anything; but i do know that they wont blow up thing in hopes of that some new pie in the sky system will be more successful.
i take will at his word, he wants a different system, which i believe will harm FUTURE senates. believe it or not we have had productive senates under this current system. all institutions have their ups and downs but we dont seek a radical change with something that does not need to be changed.
and i to agree with you that alissa should not have written this article seeing that she is on the aaa ticket...that just is not right.
The fact that I am on the AAA ticket has nothing to do with Michael Adeyanju being the better person for Student Senate president. If I am not mistaken, each person is elected individually. This means that, more than likely, people from all three tickets will end up on Student Senate next year. I'm a lot more concerned with the president being Adeyanju and not Will Klatt than I am about the rest of the people on the parties' tickets. This is why I didn't mention any parties in my column. Party line voting is LAZY and I would never encourage that. What I am encouraging is for people to 1) Vote and 2) Vote wisely. I don't think Klatt is a wise choice for president. Forget the party. I didn't vote for Klatt LAST year because I didn't think he would be a good president. So, for those who want to cry "foul!" and dismiss my argument because "waah! waah! Alissa's on the ticket!!", so be it. But, people have been writing into the Post endorsing Klatt like crazy and I wasn't going to sit quietly by because I didn't want people to think I was being biased. May have been a bad choice of judgment, but if I didn't truly think Adeyanju was the best person for president, I wouldn't be on his ticket in the first place.
Alissa
P.S. Boston Tea Party? Really?
Correction on the last line:
*May have been bad judgment to endorse him since I am on the ticket*
student senate doesn't have any real power. students know this, and i bet the voter turnout is even less this year (over/under 15 percent of students).
do the senators really think students can have shared governance with a state institution? check the post archives from the sixties and seventies, student senate wanted the same things then as it does now. students for a democratic society was around as an anti-war group, a political voice from students protesting something that mattered. isn't there still an unpopular war going on today that is more important than the OU alcohol policy?
maybe senators should devote their time to fund raising to bring down tuition costs because that would help me out more than passing resolutions. Or Senate could become a devoted community service organization helping people who need it rather than bickering and playing kiddy-Congress.
sure, it is nice to push the student agenda and provide a voice for students. but campus media does that way better than student senate.
whether people hate the local press or not, an opinion exists. more students read campus media than care or pay attention to student senate and i know this because in three years i have had precisely one casual conversation about student senate and hundreds about articles found in the local media.
the point was that you have more than once decried protest as a form of persuasion, ignoring the fact that we live in a country literally founded on protest. Your tone always makes it seem as if protests are somehow immature.
SDS protests have reached a significantly greater audience than any Student Senate activity has in my three years at OU. That's a greater accomplishment than spearheading a campaign to name the new dorm.
CNash: "i am in support of neither ticket."
That's odd, considering a Curtis Nash made the following posts on the AAA facebook group's wall:
"Good Luck!"
"You cracked the 200 mark. Let's aim for 400 now! Invite your friends and your friends' friends. You can do it!"
"almost to 300. let's get there by tomorrow night. if you have not invited your friends, do so!"
"8 away from 300. invite your friends to join and tell them about AAA"
"101 to 400."
"AAA Rocks! Keep up the good work guys :)"
Hopefully that will yank you off your pedestal of repeatedly claimed impartiality.
i have also been critical of aaa as well both in private and in public if you would have read a letter that i sent to the post yesterday.
so, careerundergraduate...why dont you spend more time trying to graduate then waste your time on facebook.
Hmmm I actually thought this was going to be a good article, encouraging students to vote, and have their voice be heard, but then I read on and realized you were really just throwing out your beliefs and trying to make others think like you.
I could care less about either ticket, because I am a graduate student and graduate student senate is attempting to break away from undergraduate student senate. This is a needed thing. Graduate students have a very different set of problems and needs than undergraduates, so they should be a separate group.
I just find it very sad that you used your column to trash the opposing party's candidate under the guise of saying students should vote.
I think your headline should have read the following:
" Maybe It's Just Me: Effective senate starts with students’ voting for anyone but Will Klatt"
Shame on you for slandering someone else. especially in your post column. Seems a bit to me like taking advantage of your position of article writing. I also find it deplorable you didn't mention your relationship to the candidate you endorsed. Thank God you added an amendment to your article, but it still doesn't change the fact that you abused your position to slander the opposite side. That's fine for writing a politics column when you get out in the real world, but as a journalism student you should be exercising integrity and from the looks of things you missed that day of classes.
Slander? First, it's LIBEL since it's in print... and respectfully disagreeing isn't exactly libelous.
Just because she isn't drinking the Klatt Kool-Aid with the rest of the Post staff doesn't mean she's wrong.
It's funny to me how everyone is dumping on Alissa when at the end of the day Chirs Yonkers did the same thing and no one said one word. Also just because she forgot to mention that she is a part of the AAA ticket does not mean she doesn't have integrity, nor does it mean everyone should dump on her. Just because the post isn't up Will Klatt's but like it usually is does not give people the right to dump on a opinion that is different. I applaud Alissa and her column and I say everyone needs to stop the attacks because this sort of thing happens all the time in newspapers around the country during election time.
Sadly, the student senate elections have stooped to the level of high school prom queen races.
And they're about just as relevant.
ourocks: That's because Chris is a good writer. Alissa is not.
Herzog: I genuinely enjoy when we agree. Incidentally, we voted a goth girl homecoming queen one year just to piss off the other catty girls. It was entertaining, to say the least, and the picture in the yearbook was a classic.
Ummm, can someone explain to me the point of this article? I don't get it. Voting for Student Senate ("SS," LOL) is pointless. They don't do anything, they have no legitimate power, etc., etc. Seriously, what are you talking about Alissa? PLZ explain.
Alissa,
Your column is garbage anyway. Good riddance you are no longer a Post columnist. Maybe we can fill your drivel with someone mildly intellectual.
Senate has no power, no voice, no control. Everyone should realize that. It's an opportunity for some brown nosers to bolster their resumes. If candidates want to make a change, they should get out there and volunteer with organizations such as The Gathering Place or Habitat for Humanity, not fighting something that cannot be fixed in the short term.
Maybe it's just me.
OURocks: At first, I thought the same thing as you in regards to Chris Yonker staying on after his scandal raged on waaay longer than was necessary, but really, Chris and Alissa did not do the same thing at all. Chris's article was offensive (whether it meant to be or not, whatever, please let's not go into it again) but it didn't withhold information. In the end, whether or not Yonker should have been fired was a decision with no clear right or wrong answer; what Griffith did (purposely or inadvertantly) in her article is pretty cut and dry in that it violates the integrity of The Post. You don't not say you're on a party's ticket when encouraging people to support said party. It just smacks of deceit.
However, I fully agree with whoever said that this never should have made it all the way to print without some editor at The Post catching it. Shouldn't they know who is running for what office and for what party? I don't think it's really all that fair that Alissa is shouldering all the blame here. Were any editors let go as well?
Maybe it's just me, but you should have signed up for your journalism ethics class sooner.
... wait, maybe we're all being too harsh and this was actually intended as yet another in The Post's long line of "humor columns".
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