New leaders must listen more

When I was in high school, one of the biggest wastes of time I was able to participate in was Student Council.

Once a week, a whole crowd of us that didn't didn't do much of anything and didn't care about much more would gather in one of the larger classrooms and listen to a select group of people talk about stuff that didn't matter to them.

Oblivious to their concerns, the majority of us remained inattentive throughout hte whole meeting and ignored the majority of speeches, most of which were pushed by only a small minority of the membership.

After about a half-hour, the period would end, we'd go back to class, and forget everything, looking forward to the day when we could put the words "Student Government" on our college applications.

That was my high school's version of student government, and from what I've heard from others, it doesn't differ very much from school to school. What's more, from what I seen of university life, it doesn't differ much from high school to college either.

Student government, more often than not, is pushed more by special interests and individual agendas than by bona fide student concerns. Take for example our student government organizations, the Associated Students of the University of Hawai`i and the Graduate Student Organization.

Over the past couple of years, we've seen a number of accomplishments, but none that have significantly affected student life for the better. The renaming of Porteus Hall was interesting, and the push for Hawaiian tuition waivers made a small fraction of the student body happy, but ASUH has done little over the past year that wasn't either reactionary or insignificant in the grand scheme of the University.

Because of persistent student government-led protests, we've succeeded in renaming Porteus Hall something that doesn't offend anyone. Instead of being named for a famous (now controversial) UH researcher, the "building formerly known as Porteus" is now the "Social Sciences Building."

Gosh, that was worth it.

More recently, UH President Kenneth Mortimer has been criticized for the demise of the School of Public Health. Whether its loss of accreditation was his fault or not makes little difference -- the way it has "all of a sudden" become an issue to student government shows clearly that they have been one step being the administration.

Regardless of the school's continuously declining condition since 1995, nothing ws brought to the public's attention until the last minute. It's like a cancer patient who continues to smoke, earnestly seeking help only after a tumor breaks out on his forehead.

This past year's Senate only barely lived up to its already low expectations. From soap opera-style infighting that cause Senator Tracy Okubo's abrupt resignation to allegations of election fraud on behalf of President Stanford Togashi, the Senate made more headlines with their antics than they did through effecting change on campus.

Fortunately, this coming year's ASUH Senate shows more promise than in past years. The trick, as always, will be to listen more than they speak. Pushing for Hawaiian student tuition waivers was one thing, but representing a group that comprises only 8.8 percent of the 17,000 member student body is far from impressive.

Student government is more than just shouting into the nearest administration ear the demands of "the students." It's getting input from the very people they are supposed to represent and not excusing oneself because of perceived student apathy.

Truly effective student government is one that works from the bottom up, not the top down. The ASUH Senate and GSO will not be able to change this campus by picking the issues they will fight for. They must choose the ones their constituents are willing to work for.