As the 95th Student Congress commences, each of its members should take care to focus on performing their duties to this University and its students without the hindrance of personal conflicts and pettiness.
The last Student Congress was marred by personal disputes and over-adherence to parliamentary procedure, often at the expense of efficiency. Petty politics also resulted in the creation of a voting bloc that seemed more concerned with the power structure within Student Congress than its duty to students.
After this pockmarked year, the new body should focus on its main duty of fairly appropriating the Student Activity Fee to student groups.
Student groups are entitled to apply fairly for funding. The new Student Congress must recognize this and do its best to distribute these fees in an informed and unbiased manner.
To efficiently perform this task, it is the duty of each member to do the appropriate research on each issue that comes before it.
Students have delegated distributing funds to Student Congress in order to make sure money goes to the right place. It needs to hold up its end of the bargain.
Though student government is modeled after the national system, it does not have to resemble it in every way. The power plays and petty politics that plague perceptions of Washington, D.C., have no place in giving money to student organizations.
Members of Student Congress should save any politicking and sly maneuvers for the national stage.
