We've been having elections this week; they actually end at midnight tonight. So everyone running and their supporters have been pestering all their friends to vote for them, to care about their platforms, etc. And I'm honestly very disenchanted by it all.
Here at UC Berkeley we pay completely ridiculous amounts of money for a less-than-useful degree...
We have a UC President whose work experience involved Homeland Security, aka deporting thousands of immigrants, separating them from their families, sometimes killing them at the border and leaving them unidentified...
And I hear most of the candidates go up there and say "Our school is great! Let's have school spirit! Let's improve the room reservation system! Let's hold people accountable! Let's be transparent! Let's make positive change!"
It feels like the students here who have power don't want to use it to really change the shitty stuff going on. Which is making me pretty upset, if you can't tell. And the same people are going to keep getting elected, because they have the time to run for office, because they don't have to work, because their parents make enough to send them here. And because they're the popular cool kids.
Hahahaha I am very frustrated about all this
Do you guys have student governments and are they similarly artificial?
We do have sort of a student government (and guild governments) - the student union. In fact, we don't pay for attending university but we pay a membership fee to the student union every year. And it's a relatively small fee.
ReplyDeleteI'm not particularly interested in voting in the elections pertaining to the board of the student union. It's always a bunch of students I don't know (usually people who have been active in guild governments etc) and frankly I'm not even sure what they do a lot of the time. I know they are fending for student rights - they've made statements against homophobia and charging students for university, they've fought in the support of raising financial aid etc. They seem to have good policies. And they communicate between students and uni staff. Beyond that I have no idea.
I don't think they have the power to snap their fingers and make something happen, but I suppose public statements are something. They do organize rallies sometimes. Oh, and a membership in the student union provides all students with such things as legal assistance when needed.
We have a student guild. If you're studying politics, it's considered a real bonus to have run for Guild elections.
ReplyDeleteEven though all they ever do is bicker about whether or not they should privatise university catering and have a Subway on campus.
Basically, they extract compulsory fees from everyone, do a crappy job at running the facilities they're entrusted with, and fail to stand up for the student population in any meaningful way since they really only see it as a way of launching their own political careers and getting some experience with assaulting people with a barrage of pamphlet-based propaganda.
Bitter? Me? Never.
Rocky for student government 2015!
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