The general opinion among students is that student government does nothing and is completely ineffective. Looking back on the past year, this statement is more than well-deserved. Constant bickering among senators has turned meetings into a circus, hampering even routine business such as appointing other government positions.
Contrary to popular belief, the student Senate has a great deal of power to change things at RPI for the better. The only problem is: that power hasn’t been exercised to any meaningful extent while I have been at this school. Most of the meeting time is devoted to pressing issues like whether or not Senator Bob Fishel ’07 is an “asshat.”
I mean it when I say that we really got screwed over this year. Besides a few events such as “Pizza with some VIP,” or scheming to inflate the union activity fee so people can go to hockey games for free, the Senate brought us nothing. This may seem like a step up from last year’s biggest achievement, which turned out to be a huge lie, but it really isn’t.
It is surprising how many things you can blame on the absurdity of the Senate. Did your club get its budget slashed? The Senate is busy celebrating their worthlessness at Plum Blossom. All paid for by your activity fee, naturally. Didn’t get that class you wanted? The Senate gets to register for classes before everyone else, because, well, no one really knows why.
The best solution to this whole mess would be if the student body stormed the Troy building and turned off the apathy machine. But that isn’t going to happen. People here just don’t care. The only other solution that has any hope of working is to flush the crap down the toilet and get some fresh water.
When questioned, individual Senators will tell you they were not pleased with the way the Senate worked this year, and blame everything on another part of the Senate. Nevertheless, over two semesters, not one person did anything to improve the situation. As such, they all share the blame for the moron-a-thon the Senate degenerated into.
Every year, the same people get elected to the Senate, and it goes nowhere. So, if you don’t have the motivation to go and learn about the candidates, I’ll give you an easy-to-use voting guide: If they’re on the Senate currently, chances are they suck. The Senate website (http://senate.union.rpi.edu/) has a handy listing of people not to vote for. It’s not like the Senate can be worse than this year.
