VSA elections process must be taken seriously

Student government is one of those ideas like, say, communism, that sounds good on paper but gets royally screwed over when it comes to implementation. Now, you might say that my unsuccessful bid for Vice President of my sixth grade class has given me a permanent case of sour grapes toward student government, and, well, you'd be right. But that's beside the point.

I have two fundamental issues with the way student elections are handled: their popularity contest nature and all the needless theatrics. Granted, though both of these are highly prevalent in our actual political system, this is one of those few cases where copying might actually be a bad thing. After all, if copying is the highest form of flattery, then we are, in effect, flattering our political system. You know, the one where President Barack Obama got called out for being an alleged Arab sleeper-cell socialist terrorist and Senator John McCain got trashed for being old.

So what do I mean exactly when I speak of "theatrics" in the context of Vassar student government elections? Well, we have "campaigning," which in large part seems to amount to sticking up posters of yourself in bathroom stalls (candidates, please note, your beaming face and rhyming slogan are the last things I want to see when I'm in them) and badgering your friends and dorm-mates to vote for you.

And then we have the Executive debates. I'm all for a good old fashioned duel of words, but unlike real politics, the school-centric issues that representatives have to deal with while in office are rarely polarized into two competing camps, and as such, there is no great ideological divide separating the candidates from one another. This makes for a rather boring "debate," if it can even be called that with a straight face. Furthermore, this means each prospective representative would probably be just as equal to the task as any of the others in regard to standing up for the interests of the College and the students. I mean, does anyone actually vote thinking that the College and students would be drastically influenced for the better if candidate A were elected over candidates B, C or D?

Oh yeah, and there's also the fact that the campaigning and debate feel like we're trying oh-so-hard to give the elections an air of legitimacy that they really have no claim to. After all, most students, come election day, might recognize a couple of the names on the list of candidates. During the fall elections, I personally recognized one would-be President; he was in my politics class, so I voted for him. Better a somewhat familiar stranger than a completely unfamiliar one, right?

What this in effect means is that the name that the most people recognize will be the one that gets elected. Popularity, not speeches that all sound more or less the same, is what determines the faces of our illustrious and esteemed leaders.

So, what is my solution? After all, without some kind of a solution, I'm just another guy venting all those years of pent up frustration because of the rather inauspicious start to my very short-lived political career.

If you are not doing so already, you might want to sit down for this: I think we should style ourselves after ancient Athens. Not in the imperialistic, raze your city, kill all your men and sell your women into slavery sense. No, I'm thinking more along the lines of the way the Athenian Council was selected. The idea was that every citizen was capable of serving in a government position, so Council positions were determined by lot. Think about it. No theatrics, no popularity contests, and more representative of the student body. If the student doesn't want the position, then he or she could refuse, and someone else would be randomly chosen. Or, alternately, we could select officials by lot from a list of volunteers who have expressed interest in the position.

Now, someone in my Greek history class is no doubt thinking, "But Emil! The most prestigious offices—the 10 strategoi—were elected, not chosen by lot!" Touché, anonymous classmate. However, considering that the strategoi were generals, and considering that Vassar declaring war on Bard College would probably be illegal, I view this as a non-issue.

We could also take a second page from the Athenian book, in terms of the way the assembly worked. Quite simply, any citizen who wanted to could show up and vote for or against motions proposed by the council. In this way, even those who were not acting as public servants could choose to be involved in the political decision-making process.

Encouraging students to come to meetings of the Vassar Student Association Council and voice their opinions, or perhaps creating a Web site or online forum where students could be surveyed and could comment on the different issues at hand are both possibilities that would put the representatives more in touch with those whom they represent.

Lastly, I want to be clear here. I am not proposing that the power to choose leaders be taken, by some arbitrary authority, out of students' hands. No, what I am proposing is that the students be put to some kind of a vote or survey, to see if they would be willing, of their own accord, to relinquish the current system in favor of one that would hopefully be fairer and more sensible.