LETTER: No one to blame but yourselves

Editor,

Once again, students at Utah State University and other state schools are lobbying the legislature to reverse House Bill 331. This legislation was the product of short-sighted imbalanced government. Instead of generating an additional $5 million, it cost around $2 million. In addition, it drove students from our state (they were not benefited with any kind of grandfather clause) and is keeping other out-of-state students from coming in.

Even our own legislator, Loraine Pace, supported HB 331. Some question how she could do this when USU is in her district. The answer is simple. She, like any other politician, operates to secure her position by responding to the institutions with power to keep her in office. In Utah, because we as voters have elected a Utah Republican Party supermajority, that power is concentrated first and foremost in the unelected leadership of the Utah Republican Party. If one falls out of favor with the ultra-conservative leadership of the Utah Republican Party, you may lose the party’s nomination (nearly a necessity to election especially in Cache County).

The next group, which should be the first group, is the voters. Unfortunately, students don’t fall into either category of power. We, as students, generally don’t vote and thus bear some of the responsibility for poor legislation like HB 331. One cannot be surprised by Pace’s and other Utah Republicans strategy, it is one of personal political security.

Students may organize protests and campaigns all they want. And politicians will pat us on the head and patronize us. But until we vote and restore balance to government, politicians will not be responsive to our needs. If even a quarter of USU students voted, Pace and many others would become markedly more responsive. If you’re a student and you’re upset about HB 331 and you didn’t vote last November, you have no one to blame but yourself.

Thomas “Lorenzo” Grover