By Andy Matarrese
I'd like to begin by congratulating the winners of this year's ASUP Executive Board elections. I hope that their tenures are successful and wish them the best of luck with managing their myriad responsibilities.
I also wish the best to juniors President-elect Colin Dorwart and Vice President-elect Katy Scally.
I wish them extra special luck in pursuing one of their most touted campaign platforms: greater student involvement.
Every student government leader advocates the same thing, from the lowliest senator to every year's president.
I say that not to belittle their intentions. In fact, I find them quite noble, and highly necessary.
Necessary, meaning also that the student body could stand to be more involved, and noble meaning it won't be easy.
ASUP gets a bad rap, but the real truth is that if the student government seems docile, unresponsive and boring it's because we, the students, are unresponsive, docile and boring.
I respect the work ASUP does. Like most organizations that call the St. Mary's Student Center home, it is a body that is brutally underfunded, hopelessly overstretched, and frequently placed in an unfair position of comparison.
"Another school I almost went to has real-life rock concerts!" students say.
True. Other schools have gobs of more money than we do, and can thusly afford to have The Fray come and play on their athletics centers (why you'd want to see The Fray, I can't imagine). ASUP tried to pass the Green Fund Resolution last year, effectively an addition to our activities fee, and we shot it down.
You can't get the fun public works projects without paying taxes and Green Funds, and we can't borrow from China, but that's for another column.
"Back in the day, ASUP brought acts like Robin Williams, Jay Leno and the Steve Miller Band! What happened?" say others.
Right again. The school has hosted some amazing speakers and performers in the past, and most likely used mention of them (the Dalai Lama, Bob Dylan, Eve 6 and the freaking Steve Miller Band!) to entice many a student to enroll here. Sorry space cowboys and midnight tokers, but again, it's about the money.
Inspiring better participation and creating a better image (and better funding) for ASUP will probably require some truly audacious leadership. Even then, saving that the Campus Program Board gets Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson, Flea and a resurrected John Bohnam to form a supergroup and come play at the Chiles Center next week, it probably won't make much of a difference right away.
Last year, former Treasurer Ben Taketa, a very forward-thinking executive board member and senate member created ASUP's endowment, which, one day, will hopefully bring great benefits to every UP student.
Note the "hopefully" and "one day." Coaxing change at a faster rate than the promised switch to credit/debit in The Cove will take a bit more work.
The endowment plan, and all the campaigning, handshaking, and politicking that went to it, is the kind of thing that has to happen to create real change.
That goes for on campus and beyond. Complaining with your friends and making a lame Facebook group will never stack up to the superhuman efforts of students like Taketa (who actually came to UP by way of Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters).
To bring the coolness back to student-centered events it will take boat rocking, poster hanging, advertisement buying, speechmaking, letter writing, op-ed contributing and receiving some nasty lectures from an administrator or two. And it might take doing that over multiple years.
But I will not place the onus of changing the way the student body behaves on ASUP.
In fact, I place very little burden on ASUP at all. That would be highly unfair, and would give short shrift to the work they already do.
Although I think it's safe to say that we are all glad for the weekly CPB movies, our scrappy yet underfunded student clubs and the occasional dance party, the reason we are unable to move beyond that is not due to poor management or shallow pockets. The fault, dear readers, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.
The student government, or any democracy for that matter, is only as powerful as its people are active. ASUP or the school isn't letting us down. We are letting ourselves down.
I like to style The Beacon as the voice of the campus, the place community members can go to voice their concerns and seek change.
Yes, that is a part of what we do here, but the real avenue for focusing the power of the student body is and always has been ASUP.
Never forget whose tuition dollars pay the bills around here. Remember that at any given moment, you probably have three different groups of senators (school, residence, year) who are ready to jump when you say how high.
Remember that the entire apparatus of the student government, an army of men and women who know how to get things done or can at least point you to who can help, is always a walk to Shiley Hall or St. Mary's away.If you are content with the occasional school dance and the CPB movies, then worry not.
But if you would like to see something change around here and are willing to do more than just whine around a table at The Commons or make a lame Facebook group, I'd say ASUP is the first and best place to start.
Andy Matarrese is the
Editor-in-Chief of The Beacon. he can be contacted at matarres10@up.edu
