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WTF ASG

Greg Dewar
The Commuter

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

I thought maybe this year’s Associated Student Government election would be different and that Will Parker’s angry rampage across the opinion section of The Commuter last year would’ve had some effect. But it appears, at least from an outside view, that the ASG is up to its old tricks. We publicized the hell out of this election and a few of the candidates actually tried (and the results showed) by putting up posters, some even put their faces around campus, most notably Katelyn Gurr in the men’s bathrooms and Stephanie Larrison at the smoke pits. What is most disheartening are the offices of Business Representative and Health Occupations representative. A candidate for each position clearly got the majority popular vote, but by some obscure loophole in the system, since they did not get 40 percent of the overall votes for their positions, they are denied. At some to-be-announced date ASG will hire for those positions like a normal job. To put a pointed hat on it, the applications won’t be between the candidates who ran or even the ones who got the most votes. Candidates who the people elected may not even have a shot at the positions. It all reeks of the general skullduggery we’ve come to know and expect from our Associated Student Government. Having secretive, questionable elections, and then hiring their friends into office. It’s a veritable boot camp for real politics, complete with conspiracies and cover-ups. Last year the election wasn’t even publicized. The Commuter didn’t even know that it was happening until after the fact. It was essentially set up to hire who they wanted by abusing the student constitution. It was not a campus election, but more of a Bush administration “good ol’ boys” affair. This year the elections were prolonged a week and then extended on the second week. In a government you can’t trust, this brings up some valid points and questions: Were the elections not going the way they wanted? Did the candidates they wanted to win not get elected? The reason they gave for their problems was automatic updates of computer system software. That doesn’t even make sense to me, assuming that they’re using a Microsoft Windows operating system and it automatically updated. What bearing would that have on a Web application? I’ve heard of no system-destroying updates being distributed by Microsoft recently. Assuming that they’re using the Apache server program or something similar, even if it were updated, why would that cause it to stop tallying votes, for candidates to disappear, and for everything to go to hell in a hand basket? Our IT staff at LBCC are much smarter than that. The result of it all is that we have an election we cannot trust, with decent candidates being denied and an ASG that isn’t talking to The Commuter. Going down there, one can get a sense of fear, that something is wrong. When pressed for answers, representatives of the ASG clam up, defer you, or act like nothing’s wrong. Going down there, one gets the sense, that the asshattery of the Bush administration has had a profound affect on the future leaders of tomorrow. We may just be a community college, but that’s no reason not to do your best, and no reason to make us weep for the species. The old advisor to the ASG is gone and Dean Lynne Cox is now running the show. My plea to you, Dean, is to fix this and provide fair and accurate elections. We’re seeing a startling trend that no one is standing up to. Considering the large amount of funding that the ASG receives, including the amount they make from the Hot Shot coffee shop, we should be seeing more effort and more results, but time and again when The Commuter polls students, they don’t even know who the ASG are. Elections aren’t just about who you want to win, it’s about who the best candidate is, and who can drum up the most support. ASG leaders should campaign out in the courtyard or the Commons cafeteria and let the students decide, not other members of the ASG. It’s hard enough to get the student body interested in voting without them knowing their opinions and votes don’t even count.

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