The time of student government elections is upon us here at ASU, and it's time to ask ourselves an important question: what exactly do those officers do, anyway?
That question is not meant to be an apathetic, "these guys don't represent ME" type of sentiment. It's simply meant to express the fact that many members of the student body simply don't know exactly what the student government is responsible for. It's this shroud of secrecy that has led to the apathy among students on campus and the poor voter turnouts in recent elections. Why vote for people you don't know to do something that you don't know anything about?
There are a lot of enticing promises being thrown around, dealing with everything from parking meters to tuition to clocks, and is that really something that student government has power over? Most importantly, which candidate is going to deliver the "Pizza Olympics" that I've been waiting to see since the seventh grade?
What better place to start looking than the incredibly user-friendly document known as the the student government Constitution. Clocking in at just under 6,000 words, it's admittedly a little tougher recreational reading than an average college student's regimen of Maxim and the warning label on a pack of Turkish Golds. The first paragraph of the constitution immediately spells out the organization's raison d'etre: "to facilitate a unified forum for dialogue, organized involvement to contribute to the life of the University and for the distribution of services and programs that benefit the student population of the University." The question remains, though, how does that affect the life of an average ASU student?
Student government is divided into three branches: Undergraduate Student Government, Graduate and Professional Students Association and the Programming and Activities Board. The division of powers among the three organizations seems to be pretty obvious. I can't speak for the GPSA for obvious reasons, and the PAB seems pretty straightforward, it is essentially the most visible branch. We've all seen, or at least heard, part of some concert that it brought to campus or seen one of its guest speakers. That leaves the USG, the organization with the most visible election this week.
The constitution says a lot about the term of office and succession of USG's executive branch but remains vague about what exactly is expected of the president and vice president and what powers those offices hold.
Surely one of the most important aspects of student government deals with money, funding for various endeavors and student organizations. Although I am still unclear exactly how much power the student government wields over financial issues, it came to light in a very real way with last month's Memorial Union/ Student Recreation Complex referendum. Although that election also had an unfortunately low turnout, it was one of the rare times where a "common" student's role in student government was clearly defined.
Although it's still confusing to try to decipher exactly what student government is and is not capable of accomplishing, it is clear that there are some candidates that are willing to make the whole process more accessible to the student body. Although voter apathy will always be a problem everywhere, the best vote of all is when you know what you're voting for.
Albert Ching is a journalism junior. Reach him at albertxii@hotmail.com.
