The People's Platform

With all the talk these days about the uselessness of SA, I thought I’d try to throw a constructive proposal out there. Right now, SA is an essentially powerless body that, at its strongest, can urge changes with the (deserved or not) seal of student approval. I don’t expect the college to grant it more legitimate power, and I’m not sure what form that would take anyway (other than a student trustee position, but I wouldn’t want that to go through SA anyway…it would have to be me). However, by actually focusing on serious and important issues of college policy, by demanding specific and practical reforms, SA could at least set the precedent of being effective and seem worth taking seriously.

So, recognizing that SA is often an apolitical holding tank for mildly well-intentioned resume padders incapable of forming its own coherent agenda, why don’t we (the people…by which I mean myself) come up with the ideas?

Here are my top four proposals that should form the people’s platform. People could weigh in on them, add ideas, subtract ideas, student groups could submit there own, and then candidates would pick different combinations of them, and offer different methods of accomplishing this. Eh? Novel, no? (Okay, none of this is about a practical proposal. It’s just what I think is important, and I want to see how other people feel about these issues.)

1. Sensible Alcohol Policy – Understanding that S&S is a buffer from H-Po still doesn’t justify the level of disciplinary sanctions that follow being picked up. For the non-Greek inclined, much of the frat scene’s strength derives from its monopoly on drunkening – similar spaces with similarly regulated but lax oversight could form party alternatives.
2. Gender Neutral Housing – First off, we’re all grown ups, it would make things easier, and since all the newer/renovated housing is in the form of suites, it wouldn’t really offend Jesus that much. Second, a space for non-inebriated, relaxed interaction among the opposite sex might foster a little mutual understanding (or do away with the mutual obliviousness that currently exists), and even if it didn’t reign in the frat-party-compartmentalized horniness, it might at least help everyone be a little less awkward.
3. 24 Hour Library Access – self-explanatory, not a lot to ask from your college.
4. 24 Hour Food Access – also self-explanatory. Also, a little more freedom from DDS wouldn’t kill anyone.

Also, shameless self-promotion. Check out my review of Dinesh D'Souza's new book "The Enemy at Home," on Campus Progress.