True 2 needs outside help

When the students of Boston University elected Carl Woog and the True 2 slate to run the Student Union last year, they were not only hoping for cable, improvements on the escort service and a better Union website. They were hoping for leadership; they were hoping for progress; they were hoping for a group of people who could look past bureaucratic procedures, avoid embarrassing entanglements and get things done.

The students of BU are being cheated out of what they wanted. The absurdity has reached new levels as Woog, Executive Vice President Remie Ferreira, Senate Chairman Joel Fajardo, Senate Vice Chair Rowan Armor and the rest of the gang find themselves involved in scandals and suspicions that make the Union look like a circus act.

With Armor filing a petition for a writ that would call for the impeachment of Woog and Ferreira and new allegations of money mismanagement emerging on a disturbingly regular basis, the Union is left close to paralyzed and BU students are left with a mockery of a student government that is doing next to nothing to live up to its campaign promises.

And the rot did not start this year. The corruption and seeming incompetence can be traced through semester after semester, from Executive Board to Executive Board. It is surprising there is still faith to be had in the Union at all.

Something needs to be done and those who would be expected to lead the charge are clearly unable to act alone. The leaders of the Executive Board have shown they are too embroiled in controversy to come up with viable solutions to the problems at hand. Outside, neutral help needs to be brought into the equation.

Last year, The Daily Free Press called for the Union to take one year to revamp the fundamentals of the constitution and the operation of the government itself. Compelled by the abysmal performance of the Union thus far this year, the leaders of the E-Board have indeed taken steps to change things but their approach is deeply flawed.

When the top two members of the E-Board Woog and Ferreira say they would not rule out eliminating the other branches of their own government the Senate and the Tribunal there is no option but to take the question of reform out of their hands.

Without the Senate and Tribunal, what would the Union be? An E-board allowed to skirt their responsibilities and obligations to the student body. A group of bungling managers expected to allocate BU students’ money. That the people in charge of the Union do not recognize how important all the branches of the government are demonstrates a real lack of understanding of the fundamental function of the government itself.

Impotent leaders necessitate drastic measures. Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore should suspend the three branches of the Student Union leaving the special bodies, such as the Programming Council, the Student Union Election Committee, the Student Union Allocations Board and the Service Council intact until these debilitating problems are fixed.

Elmore and any interested students, including current Union members, who certainly know the system better than anyone, should take this time to investigate what has gone wrong and brainstorm solutions. They should compare BU’s Union to other student governments at schools similar to BU and take cues from bodies that function efficiently. They should hold open forums where the students who have come out in recent weeks against the Union can express their rage but this time, in a constructive way. They should seriously consider whether the people on top should be able to stay there.

Previously uninvolved students should take this opportunity to make the Union something they can really use to accomplish campuswide goals. The BU community should ask itself what it expects from the Union – certainly not embarrassment and ego battles – and make sure that any restructuring of the government addresses those concerns.

It is unfortunate so many people who genuinely care about the Union, and more importantly, about the efforts the Union makes to help the BU community, will be inconvenienced and set back by such a drastic move. These are elected representatives who will have to pay for the failures of their peers by not being allowed to fulfill the duties they were asked to fulfill when they were elected earlier this year. But those members of the Senate and Tribunal should take this opportunity to make their voices heard and ensure permanent change takes place.

If this group finds that the problems are really with the system and not with those who implement it, then changes can be made accordingly. However, if it is found that it is in fact the student leaders who are creating such chaos, they should be removed from office. If these actions are taken swiftly, the student body will not have to wait long to see real changes. The people overseeing this investigative, brainstorming period should be expected to come to a consensus by the beginning of spring semester so changes can begin to be implemented.

The issues that Armor’s writ brings to the surface deceit, mismanagement of funds, failure to pass bylaws are serious and have existed for a disturbingly long time, according to various sources. The longer these problems are pushed around by the same people who have created them, the worse they will get and the longer the BU student body will have to wait to see real achievements from its own government.