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Following the poor turnout of the recent Residents On Campus president and vice president elections, the General Student Senate should take responsibility for the disappointing showing.
Only 111 of the 3,320 undergraduate, fee-paying on-campus students who could vote in this election actually voted. With proper promotion and announcements, perhaps the election could have represented a greater percentage of students on campus.
The General Student Senate plans to allocate the money it could have used to promote the elections to buy almost $1,000 worth of plaques, trophies and awards for winners of “Student Government Employee of the Month” and “Senator of the Month,” to essentially give themselves a pat on the back. This money could be spent in a number of other ways to benefit students rather than to inflate the Student Government “award-winners’” egos.
Student Government has expressed that it wants to be seen as more of an active resource for students with programming, instead of simply being a piggy-bank for clubs and organizations. To do this, it must be proactive and use its resources wisely, including ensuring its subsidiaries, like ROC, have properly promoted elections that get a majority of the students involved.
All of the money used by GSS is collected from undergraduate students who pay a $35 student activity fee. Perhaps GSS would consider using extra money on activities benefiting students rather than on wall art for student senators and employees.
College is a time for learning and thinking about new concepts and ideas, and students could learn from more intellectually-based guest lecturers on campus. GSS could also take notes from the Campus Activities Board, which, with its minimal budget, in comparison, manages to keep a steady attendance at its events aimed at providing leisure activities for college students.
Bangor Daily News