The Student Association is More Fake than Michael Jackson's Face

When thinking about college Student Association politics, my roommate Pat (a JJ Collective guest writer) summarized it best: Last year's president was accused of sexually harassing another student (who ran against him for office). So, a fake president had to go to a fake hearing in front of a fake supreme court of students. Kids here take the things that are not important far too seriously and don't anything seriously that actually do require much thought and consideration.

It hit me the last couple of days that the posters of the candidates for collegiate Student Association positions just underline the problem with college politics: it's all about popularity. All of them have pictures of the candidate on them, with almost nothing else. No platforms, no promises. Just a huge picture, name, and the name of their "party", which stands for nothing more than what clique they belong to.

Yesterday, the Hatchet ran stories about the Presidential candidates, and talked about their platforms. What was the most popular platform? "Expanding wireless capabilities". Let's get real: I don't care much. The Capp candidate, though, has a lot of ideas, but they are things that the SA has been trying to get done for years, with little success.

I also just discovered that the SA President receives a $15,000 scholarship. There's a reason to run, isn't it? I'm going to be honest, though: I'll probably vote for the Jackson party. They're running Samuel L, Andrew, Bo, Michael and Jesse. I know that they're not running just to get the scholarship money offered to the winner.

Sure, real politicians hand out free things (kickbacks) just like the college politicians do (lollipops). But parties actually stand for something, and issues actually separate the candidates that are in the running. I can guarantee that the winner of this year's SA Presidential election will be the student with the most friends on Facebook.