Wednesday, February 13, 2008

...for the record....

The Unbloggable is mostly a disagreement between myself and another person --

If I win, I think we will improve the education of students at BNCC. If the other person wins, things stay the same.

Also -- and this one I'll name 100% --- EVERY time I get an e-mail from our "Student" Senate, I have one number flash in my head.... that number is '91'.

Why '91'? --- because that is the total number of votes cast in the last Student Senate elections.

We have a total student head-count that often comes close to 12,000. Yes, that is twelve-thousand students... and 91 of them voted in the last election.

Why?? There are several reasons, including the fact that "Student" Senate election polls are open on one Wednesday from 11:00-1:00.

Every time the election notice is posted I e-mail the "Student" Senate adviser to ask why they don't have elections that are available to for more students... the answer either doesn't make sense OR he says he'll bring it up to the "Student" senate... which I doubt he actually does....

and -- isn't it his JOB as an adviser to guide them -- they are students, they sometimes need guidance. Additionally, the Adviser's other interests are teaching in the phy ed. and political science departments.... as well as being involved in the union and state-level politics. This person KNOWS that the elections are bogus as they are, but chooses to ignore that fact.

Last semester I asked all of my students (about 175 or so... 4 classes, a light semester). Maybe 10 of them knew there were elections. Only 6 would have been available to vote. 1 actually DID vote.

It wouldn't really matter to me, except that they spend (and regularly increase) student activities money --

and they claim to represent student interests.... Yea, if you can say that a group who is 0.0075833333 % of the student population represents the students....

If the "Student" Senate wants to know why I ignore their activities, this is why. If I thought they even TRIED to be inclusive, I'd support them all the way. As it is, when less than 2 sections of my Ethics course get to "elect" the "Student" Senate, I choose not to support them.

So, what is really bogus on your campus?

4 comments:

Weezy said...

This might be a 'duh' comment, but can't you set it up to vote online or something like that?

Inside the Philosophy Factory said...

umm.. yea, I've suggested that several times. I figure that if they can do a large number of on-line surveys of faculty, they could set something up... I suggested as much and was ignored.

Hell, if they just got a couple of the campus Facebook groups to vote, they'd triple the turnout, and the Adviser wouldn't be able to dictate who was on Student Senate.

Anonymous said...

i hope you win in the unbloggable debate. on our campus, it's the ridiculous power frats hold.

Inside the Philosophy Factory said...

ohhh.. BOOO Frats.

I hate the perception that they'll be the ones who donate the buildings the college will need in the future...

What is really icky is that even when they don't have houses on campus, they still have incredible power. I read a book a while back about sorority life that was scathing...