There has been a lot of talk recently about the Student Assembly. Is it obsolete? Is it an adequate representation of student opinion? I recently discovered that a friend of mine, Doug Green '96, has an opinion on the subject.
It was Wednesday night and Big Doug had an intoxicating beverage. However, his expression looked troubled. What is on your mind, Doug?
"Somebody was comparing the Student Assembly to the representative government set up by James Madison and the other founding fathers. It strikes me as pretty weird."
We do vote for members of the Assembly; in that way they are similar to our federal representatives.
"It just seems to me that they are a whole lot more like a club than a Congress. It actually reminds me of a club that was at my junior high. They called it the RC Club."
What was that, Representative Congress? Responsible Concerns?
"No, it was the Remote Control Car Club. Sure, their original purpose was to meet and race little cars around, but it was bigger than that. Talk about internal politics -- Chris Grumbos and Bill Mattern had a huge power struggle. It was really complicated because Grumbos was recognized as the best racer, but Mattern had grass roots support."
I still don't quite see the connection; so what if both groups like to bicker?
"Well they both love to hold little rallies. All those SA types organized that rally before Dean Pelton's Town Hall on the First Year Report. And the SA had that Rally to Replace Webster. The SA likes to have these little functions where they hang out and 'Rally.' The RC Club used to have road rallies every Saturday. They'd get together and race their cars around the school gym."
OK, they like to hold rallies, but the SA has the important role of representing the opinions of the students to the administration.
"There's the kicker. You see the SA says they are representing our opinions, but they are really representing the opinions of their own little club. Just like the RC Club. The RC guys were always after carpet samples -- they made their racetracks out of carpet samples.
"They were always trying to get the administration to help them get carpet samples. For the RC Club, the students of Hadley Junior High were one big carpet sample machine. Nobody else cared about carpet samples, but the Vice-Principal heard about carpet samples all the time."
But the Student Assembly does not ask the Administration for carpet samples.
"They might as well. They get together and decide what their club would like. And because they are our 'representatives' the Administration is supposed to listen, even if they ask for carpet samples. The president of the Assembly automatically gets to speak at Convocation. He or she also automatically gets to make a presentation to the trustees. Those are some big fringe benefits for the president of a club."
So what do we do?
"If people want to hang out with a club, we should let them. I just wish they were treated like any other club."
