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See the companion blog here: BLOG: Student government silent on the issues
Otterbein’s new student government has not shown significant progress on several major issues. This is acceptable as the representatives work through the first year of an entirely new system. We believe that in order to succeed, the representatives require a great deal of autonomy from the opinions of Otterbein employees as well as a great deal of support from the student body.
Several issues that require more action are as follows: publishing nothing less than the complete alcohol amnesty policy in the student handbook; addressing the issue that new member education guidelines were handed to greek life without any opportunities for consideration by student groups; and that the administration should operate with a greater level of clarity and cooperation when creating sweeping reforms in the future.
Otterbein administration, by its nature, has every right to create, present and implement broad new policies such as the NME guidelines. Regardless of what the actual policies are, the issue is that if these policies are written and put into place without any opportunity for student input, it completely defeats the existence of student government. Students should be able to contribute on all policies affecting them, not only the ones the university deems appropriate.
There are two primary groups outside of the student government that can affect their efforts towards these issues: the administration and the student body. Otterbein University staff, administrators, and faculty should be extremely careful of any actions they take with the student government in this new form, especially regarding the discussion of issues. Any non-student input regarding issues would be better served in other representative bodies, and attempting to exert any sort of influence over the students’ forum sets an extremely troubling precedent.
This sets a large amount of responsibility on the student body, as it rightly should. In that regard, however, the students have not been performing. Students are guaranteed 60 available seats in the University’s government, and at inauguration were only able to inaugurate 39 senators. Even at the outset student government filled only two-thirds of its potential to voice student opinion.
Whether you are putting yourself through school, your parents are paying, or you are covered by scholarships, somebody pays a lot of money for you to go here. Why wouldn’t you want the best possible experience? Now that we have direct representation, your voice can directly contribute to change at Otterbein more than ever before. It is therefore our responsibility to speak up. Whether you run, vote, or simply express yourself to your representatives, get democratically involved!
We cannot afford to be silent when presented with this opportunity, or we risk losing our voice entirely.
We need more productive political discussions
