"All experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." -- Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence
Did you know that there is a Student Government election coming soon? Probably not. Student Government does not want you to know. You are not considered relevant by those who control your government. What is significant about this upcoming election though, is that over 1000 students have sought to place an initiative on the ballot.
"The Initiative of the Student Body of the University of Florida" seeks to empower every student by wiping the slate clean. By nullifying all laws and removing all officers, the initiative has the potential to return SG to the students. It is up to you - the choice is between the status quo (calling themselves FOCUS) and a new beginning with the initiative. One way or another; at some time this semester; this initiative will be presented to you for a vote.
Why should the Student Body vote for the initiative? The reason can be summed up by the following phrase. "Vote and the choice is yours. Don't vote and the choice is theirs."
For nearly 75 years the Florida Blue Key political machine has denied the Student Body a truly representative SG. Through a system of rewards and punishments, Florida Blue Key (FBK) operates a political machine that mobilizes a large group of students, primarily through the Greek system, and enables them to dominate. Controlling the positions of government continually since the 1920s, the FBK machine has established an electoral system that guarantees that the largest organized voting block - rather than the majority of the students - will control the offices and resources of SG.
With greater than $6 million in their grasp they have run rampant over the rights of the Student Body. Student Organizations, one of the most important elements of a student's experience at the University, literally beg for crumbs while SG officials have a dining card slush fund to buy pizza and beer. You pay the bill. The University takes its share as well. Students pay about $2.5 million dollars to fund the Reitz Union while the University profits by using it as their convention center. Rent free - you pay the bill - and then are denied access to the rooms inside.
When students have sought to get involved they have been denied access, discouraged from participating, and even threatened. When students have voted in elections, their votes counted for little. Almost 50% of the students who have voted in past elections voted against the FBK party - but they receive almost no representation. The FBK party sweeps every time.
Students have challenged the electoral system in court based on the denial of representation. The system wasdeclared unconstitutional; denying equality of representation. Responding to the potential enforcement of the rights of students, the FBK system first ignored the court - then they took it over. They now control all three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial. The students are left with virtually no alternative for recourse. In the real world, armed revolution would be an option. At UF, however, our last resort is to use the little known power of initiative.
This fall you have nochoice. By voting Focus you retain the status quo - by supporting the initiative you reclaim your rights. No party is challenging FBK's Focus party. This election is meaningless.
What is the effect of Florida Blue Key's political domination on the average student? The fact is - we are all victims of this abuse of power. While education comes under fire in Tallahassee and Washington; while students are forced to wait in endless lines at Criser hall - only to be treated as meaningless numbers; while University administrators ignore the educational needs of the Student Body; those recognized as your SG play kiddie politics and spend your money however they wish. You and your needs count for nothing.
Think for a second, though, what further harm is being done. The lesson being taught at this University is that government is corrupt - and always will be.
Those who participate in the FBK machine are taught how to abuse power. And don't think that it ends there for they will end up in Tallahassee and Washington doing the same thing. The rest of the Student Body is taught to distrust and dislike government. They are taught apathy.
While university campuses could be the beginning of political reform in our nation; our campus provides a training ground for corruption and incompetence.
This fall the choice is yours. Demand to have the opportunity to cast a vote on the initiative and take back your Student Government. It is your right.
There is a Student Government election Tuesday and Wednesday. What will your choice be? You don't have one. You have no real choice on the ballot this semester - the Florida Blue Key backed Focus party is running almost completely unopposed.
A group of students, aware of the depth of corruption within Student Government, proposed the Initiative of the Student Body of the University of Florida. Providing the means for a fresh start--with student government back in the hands of the students themselves--the Initiative was signed by more than one thousand students.
Despite the support of the students, Karl Liebman, Chancellor of the Honor Court, refused to place the Initiative on the ballot. This was no surprise considering he is the fraternity brother of Student Body President Kevin Mayeux, a former Focus party senator and a member of Florida Blue Key with a vested interest in retaining power by stifling the voice of the student body.
Supporters of the Initiative appealed to the administration to uphold the law and to recognize the rights of the more than one thousand students who signed the petition to place it on the ballot.
Again - no surprise - the administration failed to protect the rights of these students to have their voices heard.
It is true that you have no choice on the ballot in this election, but that does not mean you cannot have a voice. Go to the polls and take the opportunity to talk about anything that is passing you off. Explain what you think and how you feel about Student Government. Write "I vote for no one" on your ballot. Write "*$#@! SG." Write a poem!
In short, take the chance to say what is on your mind. Don't let the Florida Blue Key political machine stifle your voice. As a student of the University of Florida, you must find a way to make them listen. You have been ignored long enough.
This university wants and needs a silent Student Government. Without representation, the student body is silenced as well. But think of the power of 38,000 voices - speaking together we cannot be ignored!
Students on this campus should not be satisfied with the offer from the administration to create a "task force" to address the issues of student government.
How can a small group of students handpicked by Vice President Art Sandeen, and headed by four faculty members, possibly provide a meaningful voice for the students of this University? How can this possibly be a way for the students to decide their own form of government?
What the administration proposes runs contrary to their supposed position throughout this controversy. They have claimed that stepping in to uphold student body law would "take the students out of Student Government." But that is exactly what this "task force" does.
Conversely, the Initiative of the Student Body of the University of Florida, endorsed by more than 1000 students, provides a way for all 38,000 students on this campus to actively decide on this issue for themselves.
Hypocritically, this task force is the administration intervening, something they have said that they will not do. It is an attempt to avoid facing the issue that has been placed before them - upholding the rights of the 1000 student who signed the Initiative.
The student body must have the opportunity to say whether or not they consent to this Student Government. Let the students decide.
By Dawn Harris
Like many UF students who spend countless weeks at the beginning of the semester rushing home to find no financial aid check waiting for them, I sifted through reams of junk mail last month, my thoughts inevitably turning to money.
I began thinking that it would be great if I had a little more money. Specifically if I had $83.30 more.
"Wow! With $83.30 I could almost buy a whole new wardrobe," I said to myself. "Or 40 lunches at Taco Bell. Or a month's worth of gas. I could even got to the coin laundry for the rest of my life on that kind of money."
The possibilities were endless.
But alas, I knew that $83.30 was long gone. I had given it to Student Government. I really didn't want to give it to them. Obviously, I had much better things to do with that money.
Still, I was automatically charged $5.95 extra for every credit . So were you. Only it's much worse for me, because I actually know what they do with that money.
You see, I had the pleasure of covering Student Government and all its little nooks and cronies for The Independent Florida Alligator , for the better part of last school year. I got to know all the guys (and the few girls thrown in for good measure) who get to play with more than $6 million in student money a year.
Well, they really don't get to play with the whole $6 million. A great big chunk goes to the Reitz Union and recreational sports (neither of which I could care less about). Student Government also has to allocate a bit of the lottery-like sum to the starving masses of student organizations. Organizations are lucky to get a crumb.
This year it has gotten even worse. So that SG could give themselves a $50,000 raise, they cut money from student organizations in the newly passed 1996-97 budget. This gives SG more than $1 millionin their internal budget to play with.
This is a far cry from the student government you probably had in high school. All the popular, well-groomed people you knew and loved, who pretended they were doing something important, have banded together in college. And for some reason, they think they're from Greece.
These "Greeks," through subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle manipulation make sure they are well represented in SG. A few other people get to join in the fun, but they are only there to keep up appearances. The few independents are usually ignored, while the self-proclaimed Mediterraneans decide what rules are best suited to keep their boys in power.
And when this game of pretend gets underway, watch out. These people sure do know how to party!
Our pseudo-representatives take field trips to Tallahassee and Washington D.C., where they can pretend that some real law-makers will mistake them for all-power lobbyists and listen to them.
Current SG figure-head: Mr. Gingrich, on behalf of the three students who vote at the University of Florida, I beseech you to keep funding federal grant and loan programs. It is something much of my constituents' educations depend upon. In fact, I have to use thousands of their dollars just to talk to you. Isn't that worth something?
Newt Gingrich: Not really. But did you say you suckered those dupes into giving you thousands? I could use a man like you. Give me a call when you finally graduate.
But wait, there's much more to being a Student Government rep. They get nice little offices that dominate the Reitz Union's third floor, so they have lots of space to play in. They also have cool computers - all to themselves. They even have secretaries so that they don't have to do any of the real work. Remember this is all free for them, courtesy of your wallet.
But most important, they get to tell people, especially law school admissions officers, that people called them "senator" or something even more impressive.
But, before you say to yourself, "hey, I really want to be a member of SG and spend my fellow students' money on cool stuff like that," keep in mind that this game has an entrance fee. And it's pricey.
Almost anyone who enters into the lower echelon of SG has to check their individuality at the door. And the price seems to get higher, the further the player progresses. Every point gotten thereafter has to be paid for with a piece of conscience, pride or self-respect, handed over to a man with a blue key.
Allow me to explain. The guardian to the door of Student Government is called Florida Blue Key. And at the final stage of the game, he asks for your soul, and usually gets it.
After a year of spending hours upon hours a week with lots of SG people, I have yet to understand why they would pay so high a price to play this game of pretend.
Certainly more than my $83.30 is worth. Is it worth yours?
It's no secret that Greeks generally vote for the Florida Blue Key-backed party (Gator, Sun, Focus...). But why? How does the current Student Government system help, or even protect, the Greek system? Simply put, it doesn't.
First, Greeks must pay Activity and Service fees just like any other student. That is an automatic waste of more than $80 (enough for at least two kegs). But this loss of money goes toward a government that helps Greeks, right?
Wrong.
Student Government helps no one, including fraternities and sororities. In fact, it seems that the Greek system is continually trampled upon by the University administration with no protests from Student Government. Remember the Intrafraternity Council's Officer Retreat last year in Jacksonville? Remember how the University of Florida handed out sanctions against those IFC officers who were arrested for swimming nude in the St. John's River? Would a non-Greek student be punished for their actions by the university in a town over 90 miles away? Absolutely not. Did Student Government stand up for these student's rights? No.
One would think that having a friend in a position of authority would ensure a person's rights. However, Student Government has proven that wrong. If Student Government were a legitimate entity, the Greek system would probably benefit more than any other student organization.
Instead sorority and fraternity members year after year are used by FBK through a system of manipulation. Rather than being rewarded for their loyalty, they are simply forgotten as soon as the election is over.
If the Student Government system were legitimate, Greeks wouldn't have to wait to be involved in Student Government until Florida Blue Key awards their chapter another slot.
If Greeks want to regain their freedom both from the administration
and from Florida Blue Key, they will vote to take back Student
Government. If not, the Greeks system will remain essentially
powerless under the Florida Blue Key regime.
"One can't believe in impossible things. I daresay you haven't
had much practice, said the Queen. When I was your age, I always
did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as
many as six impossible things before breakfast." -- Lewis
Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
There is no other meaningful choice
The electoral system is unconstitutional
"No One" can't waste your $
The ballot boxes are probably stuffed anyway
"Focus" = status quo
It's time
SG ignores their own laws