I Can See The Future
Below is last year’s ASUO Elections editorial, I think I might have, like, ESPN or something. Most prescient points in bold.
Weʼre Late, late, late for a date of minimal importance. With as much emphasis as the folks down in Suite Four place on the ASUO elections every winter or spring, one would think more of an effort would be made to ensure enough publicity for real student participation. Sadly, that is not the case. The elections are a fiasco every year, and this one has been no exception. The difference, however, is in the exact reason behind the newest chapter in the quite sad comedy of errors known as student governance.
The delays caused by the general incompetence of all parties involved are certainly well documented by this point. That doesnʼt really change from year to year. As of publication there were yet to be any grievances filed this cycle, but that will change.
With only 12 days of campaigning, however, these sorts of things are likely to play a smaller role than they have in past years. The major worry this go-round is Progressive Students Starting Today or PSST. Weʼre pretty sure that the PSST kids were really trying to play up the onomatopoeia because they think itʼs clever. Hereʼs a hint, folks, itʼs not clever, itʼs dumb.
Aside from a silly name, and politics just slightly left of your average radical Marxist, the progressives are getting quite preferential treatment from the current ASUO. Each of the PSST candidates is supported by Melton and Morales. Further, Melton is reportedly involved in many of the PSST campaigns. This, quite obviously, sets a bad precedent for the ASUO. The PSST will, undoubtedly, vote for every ethic, environmental, and left-leaning piece of fee-allocation available. Their answers in the ODE vis a vis viewpoint neutrality have been, to be polite, less than adequate. This makes us wonder what exactly would happen to groups that the PSST campaigners did not like.
Viewpoint neutrality, not of groups but of the process by which they are funded, is vitally important to the legal administration of the incidental fee. If the PSST bloc gets elected, and with the low turnout thereʼs a reasonable probability of that happening, groups with unpopular opinions could be in real trouble. The 11 PSST candidates would pose a large bloc of votes on Student Senate, PFC and the ADFC. With only 18 senators, and 10 PSST candidates, a simple majority would be quite easy to maintain. Even worse, the PSST would be only two senators away from a 2/3 voteunder the right circumstances two senators would be easy enough to persuade. If all of the PSST candidates are elected, they will be a nearly unstoppable bloc of power within the Student Senate. Further, the candidates who are under the PSST umbrella for PFC At-Large and ASPAC positions will give even more power to a rather narrow group of kids.
Control over Senate and PFC by the PSST would likely toss viewpoint neutrality out of the game completely. An even greater negative consequence is that the PSST would not likely represent the student body very well. Low turnout in ASUO elections is a constant problem, and the 10-15% of the student body that bothers voting is largely comprised of the same wonks who wish to hold office in the first place.
The average student goes to class, goes home, has a beer or ten on the weekend, and doesnʼt worry too terribly much about being involved in campus life. How is a student whose only goal is to graduate served by paying nearly $600 a year for activities in which he or she has exactly zero interest? We can agree that some level of incidental fee collection is probably allowable, but the level to which the fee has risen at Oregon is really quite ridiculous. Electing a PSST senate will in no way help the pocketbook of the representative student.
That Melton and Morales, whose campaign last year swore to be about ME Working 4 U, are sponsoring this sort of thing isnʼt really surprising, but it is certainly disappointing. The hypocrisy of that sort of campaigning is also commonplace, but equally obnoxious. While trying, most often ineffectually, to meet pie-in-the-sky goals, the Executive loses sight of action that ends up costing students money. A constantly increasing fee is just one more expense students must pay in order to attend the University. If the Executive actually cared about the average student, they wouldnʼt keep milking the student body for money via the fee.
The only recourse that we, as students have, is to say no more. The PSST must be stopped, and it is now that we must stand astride the woeful tide of history and yell stop. Vote against the PSST, make sure that one group of hard-left sympathizers is not allowed to seize control of the ASUO. The consequences for the rest of us would be far too grim.
