You are planning an evening with someone with whom you are unfamiliar but in whom you may be interested. You do your best to look nice (but not too nice) and to feel comfortable (but not too comfortable). Your date appears to have done the same. You both enjoy dinner with light chit-chat and then you find a quiet place for later.
The next thing you know, your hands are bound, your eyes are covered, and your mouth is gagged. Your companion has now become your captor, someone you barely know...
Now, consider what happens when a society establishes a government. The initial period is usually smooth and enjoyable, but if the society isn't careful the idle chit-chat can lull them into a stupor. All too quickly, the population can become bound, blinded, and gagged, and then who can stop the government?
Here at the University of Florida, Student Government is in the final stages of this transformation. Don't believe it? Well, so far we have been bound and blinded. Lest we intend to be gagged as well, it is our prerogative to cry out to have our bonds removed and our eyes revealed.
The first step is education: Once you understand the limits placed upon you, then you can struggle to remove them.
Student Government is established by Florida Statute to disburse our Activity and Service fees ($5.95 per credit hour that you pay to the University) in accordance with the purposes of the University and the best interests of the Student Body. At this time, this means (according to SG) over $5 million used to pay for the Reitz Union, Recreational Sports and the Recreation Centers, and Student Government. The remaining $1 million or so divvys up amongst the several hundred student organizations on campus.
It's a rather expensive dinner, but if you like your meal at least you should know that you are paying for it.
What is it that binds you and prevents you from regaining control? After all, you can always toss the troublemakers out at the next election, right?
Actually, the rope that binds you is the elections process itself. It is occasionally possible to win the Student Body President, but that is not where the power resides. Change requires rewriting the laws, and only the Student Senate can do that.
Whereas the President is elected by majority vote, Senators are not. Instead, they are elected in multi-member districts by plurality vote. The worst case is illustrated most effectively by the Spring senate election for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Altogether, more than 20 candidates ran for 6 seats. Everyone who voted got to vote six times. The FOCUS party endedup winning all 6 seats -- but combined they had less than half the vote!
What this means is that though the students continually turn out to vote against the system, the system continues to win.
The Honor Court? In theory, they can strike down obviously unfair and unconstitutional laws. And they did. In Fall, 1994, the Board of Masters of the Honor Court ruled the elections districts unconstitutional. What happened? The SUN-dominated Senate ignored the ruling. Elections went on six weeks late, but under the same system. During the following term, the SUN party changed statutes to allow one of their own to run for Honor Court Chancellor. Now, the Board of Masters is a political body hardly intent on making fair and impartial decisions.
The administration? Considering that SG is providing the funding for the on-campus convention center (the Reitz Union), classroom space (the Recreational Centers), and legislative lobbying (interns and lobbyists in D.C. and Tallahassee), the administration obviously has little reason to change things. Their hands stay off anything that could change this balance.
Your hands are bound. No one intends to help you even though they know. Now, though, you understand your bonds. Breaking free will be painful and difficult, but not impossible.
Should you break free? Maybe you are tucked away safely in an unknown room -- or maybe you are haning over a spike-filled pit! You need to see before you know if you are in danger.
Your captor works diligently to make sure you do not see. For instance, your bonds were tightened this summer -- but you didn't even know it because you weren't here to see!
Last fall, the only Senate seats that the SUN party lost were on-campus single-member districts (districts for which only one senate seat was up for election). Well, this summer, the FOCUS and SUN parties (Florida Blue Key backed parties) eliminated those districts in favor of multi-member districts. On top of that, they also moved all the election deadlines back one week -- including absentee ballot requests, qualifying dates, and party slating.
The result, if you hadn't noticed, was that the FOCUS party ran unopposed this fall and swept the Student Senate elections.
Feel those bonds tightening?
It gets worse.
This summer, still bound by unrepresentation and blinded by absence, your gag was all ready for the stuffing. Attached to the Student Government Funded Organizational Budget was a rider which stated that "Student Government funded organizations may not participate in any form of protest." Protest was defined as "an expression or declaration of objection, dissaproval, or dissent."
If that scares you, it should. The barest thought of such a concept flies in the face of everything our society and culture stands for. How could such a thing come to pass?
Blame the Senate Budget Committee. This committee, composed entirely of SUN and FOCUS senators approved this rider proposed by Senator Corey Parks and masterminded and supported by (FOCUS-party) Student Body President Kevin Mayeux. A flawless gag. The moment you try to speak, your money is ripped away and your voice shrivels to barely a whisper. The setup was perfect.
Students and the community were made aware - mainly through the efforts of the Independent Majority senators and members of the Independent Student Coalition. Public pressure forced Student Government to retreat from its frontal attack. However, the question remains, will it continue to pursue this policy behind the scenes?
The scary thought is how few of you yet know. The Alligator, the press, the champion of the First Amendment never even mentioned the no-protest clause. Why? Because SUN senator and Budget Chairman Brent Gordon said the rider would be removed.
But does that make it any less frightening?
How easy it would be to follow the path of least resistance! Bow your head, accept the gag, and let your captor use and abuse you. If you want to spend your entire college life this way, blissfully ignorant and impotent, then you should also realize that your captor will graduate into the real world with you. You will not escape that way.
On the other hand, if you want to hold your head high and one day walk free again, you must learn to see. Visit a Senate meeting on Tuesday evenings in the Reitz Union (7:30 p.m., room 282). Learn for yourself, you be the judge. As you see more, you learn more. Your bonds become easier to break once you understand their nature. Yet, your captor will continue to try and stop you. Freedom will not come easily; it never has. Yet, if freedom does not come, then slavery must.