COLUMN: A final plea from a common man
First and foremost, pay attention while I explain what an opinion column is. There is definitely one thing that it is not, and that is responsible journalism. I am not here to please the masses and provide a neutral view. I desire to express my view, which I believe is shared by many members of the student body. We have a lot to expect from our newly elected leadership. First and foremost, we expect greatness from our newly elected student body president, Erik Mikkelsen.
When I say that we expect greatness, it is not to say that I am counting on it. My hope is that he will take on responsibility which is beyond himself, beyond his fraternity and beyond the executive council itself.
Erik, your most prominent campaign promise was to put students first. Which students? I hope that when you said that, you meant the general interest of the ENTIRE student body, not just those who love big parties and athletics. You say that you admire Abraham Lincoln for not surrounding himself with yes-men? Be inspired and do the same. If you surround yourself with appointed cronies from your fraternity, then you will have not followed through on your promise. If you truly want to put students first, appoint somebody who disagrees with you and encourage the rest of the council to do the same. A compromise among differing views is the only way to have a fair, democratic operation.
We’ve seen this year what an Executive Council full of best friends and yes-men can do. They produced disasters like the BJ Novak event, and the most poorly-planned Howl that I have ever heard of, let alone attended. Now, let’s see what a balanced Executive Council with differing views and people who are willing to work for the good of the student body can do. Do not let personal agendas get in the way of what is best for the average student. Take the initiative to figuratively wave a flag of open mindedness and inclusiveness as opposed to the exclusive nature of previous regimes.
Please note, this is not at all an attack on Tyler Tolson. I believe he did the best that he could with the executive council that he had. Having said this, I expect Erik Mikkelsen to follow through on his promise to use an individual approach with the other ASUSU officers to ensure that they are keeping their campaign promises. Always remember to ensure that their goals and accomplishments work toward achieving your ultimate goal of putting the students first.
As for the other officers, there were few surprises. Kirsten Frank staved off an ambitions write-in campaign for Executive VP with about the same percentage of votes as your average democratic presidential candidate pulls in the District of Columbia. Ry Bay fared about the same as Athletic VP. One bright spot in the interest of change is the victory of our new VP of Programming, Zach Larsen. In a debate hosted by The Statesman, Larsen and his opponent Jackson Cozzens were asked whether it is better to have bigger events or a variety of events throughout the year. While Cozzens maintained that bigger is better, and that he wanted to make the big events huge, Larsen asserted that big is good, but variety is just as good.
While this is not exactly what I believe, it’s better than making the already overblown events even bigger. I would much rather have frequent occurrences of something good then a handful of huge events that are hit and miss. On that note, another promise from president-elect Mikkelsen is to ensure that events are planned that will be of interest to more members of the student body. So, Mr. Larsen, do your best to follow through on your words and help our Student Body President to do the same.
Perhaps the biggest shock of last week was the approval of the Blue Goes Green Fee. It appears that even the efforts of Wild Bill could not convince voters to educate themselves about how open-ended the Blue Goes Green proposal really is. The fact that it passed has been taken as a huge vote of confidence by supporters, to the point of verbally rubbing it in the face of those who disagree with it, like yours truly. To the supporters, I have one simple thing to say. Don’t screw the pooch. You are to be entrusted with almost $100,000 of your fellow student’s money per year. Do not disappoint. Many of us see this as a horrendous waste of our money, and an unethical way of taking said money from students by putting the “green” flag on it. The main consequence will be research money for a select number of students all managed by a full-time coordinator. While I question the wisdom of it all, I am going to give it the benefit of the doubt since the fact that it passed signals that the approximately 5,000 students that voted have spoken their opinion.
As for the thousands of students on campus who did not vote, I believe that you have no right to an opinion about how things turn out because you didn’t even bother to go to a website and click eight buttons to make that opinion known. Odds are, however, that you are not even reading this article and could care less about $3 in fees or how the parties that you don’t attend turn out. I envy your capacity for ignorance. I wish I could not care, but I do. So, to all the winning candidates, I tip my metaphorical hat in congratulations for quality wins. I do so expecting your best efforts to shore up student confidence in your leadership and disappoint as few people as possible. Go therefore and do!
Tyler Barlow is a sophomore majoring in computer engineering. He can be reached at tyler.barlow@aggiemail.usu.edu.