OUR VIEW: How many votes are you worth?

Should some groups of people get more votes for their government representatives than others? The backers of a bill currently before the ASUSU Executive Council seem to think so. The bill, which would create a new vice president on the council, is in the process of being reworked before a vote.

    The new position on the executive council, an elected body which handles hundreds of thousands of dollars of our student fees, would allow an International Vice President, voted in only by international students, to be part of that decision-making, power-wielding body that is half of our student government.

    The executive council currently consists of several voting members – such as President, Athletics VP, Programming VP and Diversity VP – elected by the student body at large. There are also non-voting members, like the public relations director and administrative assistant, who are appointed rather than elected.

    The other half of the student government is the Academic Senate, which consists of senators from each colleges, such as HASS, Engineering and Natural Resources. The senators are elected only by the students in their individual colleges, and therefore do not vote on executive council, although one senator does serve as a non-voting representative of the senate for the executive council.

    Now, we know this is a lot to take in, but the point is simple: One group of students should not get to vote for their college senator as well as the officers of executive council AND get another vote for a separate representative that no one else has.

    The International Student Council, whose president presented the bill to the Executive Council, feels underrepresented by the officer supposed to represent them, the Diversity VP. We feel, however, it is any group’s responsibility to work with the executive council to ensure their needs as an organization are met, be it the international students or the ping-pong club. Yes, every club or association has the right to representation and the ability to request funding from the Executive Council or Academic Senate. There are simply too many organizations, big and small, for the council to guess what everyone needs – they need to be told before they can do something about it.

    Some council members said they didn’t see the need for the new position and suggested the bill’s backers change the wording to make the proposed position a non-voting one. This then, is no different from the president of any club – because indeed, the International VP would also be the president of the ISC – coming to a council meeting and making its needs known. Anyone can speak at the council’s public forum, a part of every meeting. We see no need for a new position, voting or non-voting, and would rather encourage student organizations to go to their representatives and start a dialogue.

    It isn’t fair to the student body that any group, regardless of affiliation, get more votes than another for their representation. Keep the members of Executive Council voted in by everyone, and keep the senators voted in by their colleges. At Tuesday’s council meeting, Programming VP Tom Atwood said there are “still some discrepancies” in how the ISC wishes to proceed with the bill. We can only hope that council members, whether through votes or power of persuasion, recognize the ethically questionable nature of this proposal and keep student government an equal playing field.