Selena Farnesi

In any sort of election, be it for student government positions, City Council or Congress, a lot of attention is focused on the political party of the candidate.­ Are they Republican or Democrat? Are they radical or moderate? A lot of the concern regarding an individual’s political party is focused on fiscal issues.

In the case of student government, the questions change. How will you spend student money? Do you support fee increases? Do you understand the student struggle to pay for education?

In my short venture as a student politician, I have found it both impossible and ineffective to answer these questions like a party politician might. If you are too liberal with the funds, handing it back to students in the form of grants, scholarships and club support, then you are taking the money of every student and giving it back to a small minority of those students. If you are conservative with your budget, on the other hand, then students are paying into an organization that isn’t giving them any sort of return on their investment.­ It doesn’t make sense to save student money because then it doesn’t benefit the students who paid it in the first place.

I’ve found it’s best to consider the entire student population and use those funds to provide programming and resources that are accessible to all students (like through extending library hours). A student politician can’t, or at least shouldn’t, adopt the spending mentalities of either party.

In fact, I believe a student politician shouldn’t represent either party at all.

Student governments are not meant to be Democratic or Republican.­ Student governments are not meant to be partisan at all. Student governments are not meant to be the stomping grounds of liberal students against the conservative ones, or vice versa.

No matter which way you look at it, the casualties of such a battle are the students.

As a student politician, you are the mediator of both sides, bringing students together to recognize their commonalities. You are the broker between students and their school, making sure they get what they’ve been promised. You are the advocate of students to a population of decision-making authorities that believe they understand because they were in college once.

These are the hats you wear; these are the roles you play.­ You are not an elephant.­ You are not a donkey.­ You are a student. You are a student serving other students.

With an election to replace me around the corner and my time in ASI coming to an end as graduation approaches, I’ve been thinking a lot about the type of person I would be confident in as a successor and a peer.

What I’ve come to realize is that it doesn’t matter if this person agrees or disagrees with the decisions I’ve made for ASI.­ It doesn’t matter what college they are in or what major they’ve declared.­ It doesn’t matter if they have a scholarship, pay for school out of pocket or receive financial aid. What matters is who they believe they represent.

Certainly this is not the only factor; leadership ability, organizational skills, meeting decorum, professionalism and respect are all important too.­ But the question that students should be ask those who run for ASI is, “Who do you represent?”

Student government is not a private launching pad for a political career.­ It is not a self-serving catapult from college to candidacy. So if your answer isn’t “students,” don’t waste our time.

For the rest of you who believe yourself capable of shedding your political skin, unknotting those political ties and working on behalf of students ”” pick up an application! Think about running for office. It’s an experience of a lifetime.