Currently, undergraduate districts in Student Congress are based on geography.
But there’s a better way. Student Congress should design these districts not based on geography but on class year.
There are two main goals of having representatives serve specific districts rather than the student body as a whole.
The first is to let representatives interact with their constituents. The second is to ensure a variety of perspectives are heard.
Geography-based districts do well on the first count, but come up short on the second. After all, it’s doubtful that students in Craige North have consistently different views than students in Old West.
Surely, one might argue, more upperclassmen live on North Campus than South Campus. Surely these two groups will see things differently.
As of now, only three of the 26 undergraduate seats in Student Congress are held by freshmen. Not only is this representation inequitable, but it seems like an awfully poor way to get younger students interested in student government.
Even Student Congress recognizes that geography isn’t always the best way to assign districts. Graduate students vote for their representatives based on which school they’re in.
One hitch in this plan is the Student Code’s requirement that members of Student Congress be elected in February. This would prevent incoming freshmen from having their own representatives.
