| << Front page | Commentary | March 4, 2005 |
Senate needs to prove integrity
Another semester, another Student Senate scandal. It seems that it is fast becoming one of the accepted truths of life at Oberlin that Senate is incapable of holding an election without contested results, questionable procedures or accusations of corruption.
Last year, the results of an unclearly worded referendum question were thrown out without the sponsor of the referendum even being consulted. Last semester, a question regarding Senate pay was tacked on to the senate ballot and disguised as an opinion survey. The result of this is that student senators are now paid despite the fact that students overwhelmingly voted that they should not be in a referendum last year.
This election, it has emerged that candidates were informed of their victory hours before voting had ended. In a community as small as Oberlin, a few hours can drastically change the results of an election; therefore, such actions constitute an unacceptable violation of fair election procedure. Additionally, during a runoff election it became clear that the candidates did not know the rules and procedures of the process.
Losing candidates have rightly protested the outcome of this election, but more importantly, incidents like these create the perception that the senate is simply making up the rules as it goes along.
Oberlin students regularly demand transparency and accountability from their administration. They ought to do the same for their own elected representatives.
If students wish to play an active role in the massive changes that will be taking place on our campus over the next few years, we will need strong representation in student government to voice our concerns. Ideally, Student Senate should fill this role.
However, Student Senate cannot claim to be the representative of the student
body until it can prove that it represents something more than the political
ambitions of its own members.
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