Dear Editorial Board,
Based on the article "Greek Gods of the SGA," I see that there are still fresh ideas in The Plainsman office.
Here's a question: Why don't you use your considerable, uncontested journalistic prowess on campus to encourage the other 77 percent of Auburn's non-affiliated student body to vote and organize? Ask more from the student body?
Also, the fact that there is a student higher education march on the Montgomery Capitol each year to advance the very same causes you suggest should be taken up on Dr. Gogue's lawn must have slipped the mind of the entire Plainsman Editorial staff.
It is conceivable to the conscientious observer that your staff just does not know what it is talking about in this particular article. On the topic of breaking up the Greek influence: If you thought a fraternity of 90 guys campaigning is a political force majeure, maybe you should consider what might happen, if say, a member of the student band ran for SGA elected office?
In reality, there are considerable resources at the disposal of any Auburn student who wants to change the campus conversation through elected office. It just takes planning, determination and shaking some hands.
Yes, Greek-affiliated students can more easily just throw a campaign together and win. But for a dark horse, unconventional candidate to take the office by storm just takes a compelling message. The body politic is craving it.
Sadly, the message of winning candidates has been dry for years. Parking, classes, meals, etc. Same ideas, no pressure to exceed our expectations, no pressure to actually fulfill these promises. I wonder what would happen if The Plainsman used its circulatory monopoly on campus news to demand a new paradigm in which only a genuinely progressive and forward thinking campaign with tangible ideas could march on to vic'try?!
Alas, we get the same bland campaign promises to which the candidate is not held accountable, not by the press at least, a key difference between the Beltway and the Plains. We get the same bland newspaper that goes on occasional stumps about normative claims of undergraduate electoral justice and other oft-forgotten things.
Do you want to write a valuable article? Do you want to spark debate? Do you want to change the paradigm on campus? Then ask tough questions to our leaders and aspiring leaders. Ask something of the students who have the power to vote, especially those who abdicate that right.
I'll help you out with a first topic: why does the SGA Elections Board carry significant influence in the outcome of the elections, yet the student representative body (the Senate) does not vote to confirm appointment of these Board members? Federal Election Commission (FEC) appointees in the U.S. must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, an elected body. Why not these presidential appointees? Ask the tough questions, report on it, consider your contribution to electoral transparency, then you might actually find a glimmer of the change you want to see in this world.
"You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?' - George Bernard Shaw. Ask "Why not?" Plainsman Editorial Board.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
