STAFF EDIT: Reject Union incompetence

The Student Union has refocused itself yet again, evading its pathetic efforts at minority retention and now turning to cable, safety and guest policy issues. With less than three months left to tackle these problems, their efforts will probably be just as ineffective, proving that our embarrassingly incompetent student government cannot successfully multitask, especially without first reforming itself into a functioning body. With the current e-board unlikely to redeem itself before elections, students should start forming contending slates that can hopefully learn from this one’s mistakes.

Students do care about cable, safety and the guest policy, and all could stand improvement at Boston University. However, the Union is grossly overestimating its abilities by hoping to instigate any reforms in the next three months. The administration has shown reluctance to budge further on these issues, so they must see serious, dedicated effort by the Union, not just a weak proposal based on a smattering of surveys.

Also, the Union estimates completing that same method toward improving minority retention will take six weeks. They originally set a Feb. 10 deadline, and even if they meet their next deadline, negotiations for actual change will still take more time. Based on this track record, it is unfathomable that the Union will make advancements on cable, safety, the guest policy and study lounges during the 11 weeks it has left, which also include spring break, campaigning time and minority retention survey tabulation.

Since taking surveys is apparently the only way to take on issues at Boston University, the Union should do a survey about itself. Maybe the results would finally convince the Union to take care of its originally stated priority for the spring semester: reforming itself. The Union likes to blame administrative resistance, student apathy and lack of funding for its woeful inaction, and granted, they are true obstacles. However, the Union does not own up to nearly enough responsibility for its own ineptitude.

Because the government cannot even follow through with easy promises like continuing the BUnited bus service or supervise valid elections to ensure it actually represents BU students, its constitution clearly needs desperate revamping. Serious steps need to be taken to prevent another election fiasco and make the organization more like a real government than the play government it currently is. The Union should know by now that it cannot do more than one thing at once, and this task must be the one thing done now if it ever hopes to change anything else at BU.

The current e-board has indicated plans to run for reelection this spring, but unless it miraculously rescues itself from the cesspool of inaction it is currently mired in, the True slate should not win. Students committed to creating an operational body that can govern the student body need to start forming slates now. The deadline for slate registration is Mar. 5, and BU desperately needs student leaders looking for more than personal recognition. The other slates should try to learn from this year’s mistakes and apply the True slate’s successes with campaigning and guest policy reform.

By focusing on and following through with guest policy reform, this year’s Student Union made a solid start and looked poised to end the Union’s long tradition of failure. However, the state of the Union is that it has become devoid of focus or ability to follow through, and students need to take action. The Union is only accountable to the students it supposedly governs, so those students need to make their voices heard.

The current officers stress their desires to meet with students, and Union meetings are open to the public every Monday night in the Photonics Center. Students must express their opinions because without feedback, the Union will only continue to be ineffective and spew empty rhetoric. Better yet, motivated students should form slates that actually want to make the changes that everyone wants but cannot realize alone. The Union needs people dedicated to seeing that it finally lives up to its ability to unite students and use its position as the only voice close to the top administrators. Unfortunately, the current government has united the student body only in apathy, and its voice is nothing but hot air.