The options presented to Boston University students for this year’s Student Union elections are slim, even if the candidates are younger than usual. This year’s Union has disappointed by failing to enact policies that really matter to BU students with any sort of promptness or timeline, and students deserve a wide range of choices to reverse this course. But more important than how many slates are running this year is how these two slates propose to lead next year’s Union.
In last year’s Union election, less than 2,900 students voted, or less than one out of five undergraduates. Clearly, students feel that the Union is not important, and this is unfortunate. With effective leadership and enthusiastic membership, the Union could be a powerful advocate for student needs. As students saw this year, however, when General Assembly members fail to attend meetings and constitutional rules are ignored, it become nearly impossibly to get anything accomplished.
This campaign needs to change the perception that the Union is powerless through big ideas and proposals that will create meaningful change for students. Including laundry as part of tuition is not an issue that deserves to be prioritized by the next Union administration. The BU student body needs leadership at the Union that will tackle issues that have a big impact on all students, including challenging BU’s annual tuition hike, improving academic advising and clearing up the confusion surrounding the BU Collaborative Undergraduate Degree Program.’
Just as important as promising to take on important issues, however, is establishing a reasonable timetable in which Union will deal with these issues. Medical amnesty was worthy of the Union’s attention, but it took several semesters for the Union to take any significant action on the issue, and this needs to be changed.
There’s nothing wrong with this youth movement that is taking place inside Union, but it does raise some questions about Union veterans. With six out of eight Union members running for executive board positions being freshmen, it prompts the question of why there is lack of leadership coming from upperclassmen.
This campaign can’t be about continuing the status quo, but rather about proposing bold ideas that will change the perception that the Union is ineffective. But with no outsiders running for election, a dramatic shift does not seem likely. If these candidates can’t bring about the real change that this Union needs, then the youthfulness of this year’s slates will be totally irrelevant.
