In an age where young adults are being called upon more than ever to spark change and set new precedents in politics, developing the foundations of how exactly one can do so is necessary. One of the most accessible and useful ways one can achieve this is through participating in their respective student government groups, as they typically provide a scaled-down governmental structure that is meant to teach the basics of these systems.
Boston University’s long standing Undergraduate Student Government exemplifies this area of development in its most basic manners. It certainly is one of the most important groups on campus, but during my admittedly short time here, I cannot help but notice how little the general student body’s awareness of their own student government. But is the student body justified in their lack of consideration?
From what I have observed so far, I feel as though a great deal of students on campus are invested in the idea of our current political landscape nationally. Though this may inherently lend them towards caring more about the student government, as it is now there is a certain fraying in their political engagement.
This divide is found in the substantially higher interest in the extrinsic factors of the political world rather than the intrinsic ones that make up the foundations for the resulting events that we see in the news. Students are concerned with what happens, not how or why it happens.
As great and necessary as it is to be at least invested in some area of today’s political discourse, a higher level of understanding of how government functions would change how the public would view the future of this country.
Not only are the fundamentals necessary in a broad sense, but they can actively be used to improve BU in a variety of impactful ways. If more students take the initiative to become more cognitively aware of their governing body, students would become more invested and empowered in carrying out change on campus. We would benefit from a simultaneous improvement of our lives on campus and a rich increase in knowledge of our democratic foundations.
It has been made clear to me that no, the student body should not be given a break for the failure of considering our student government. The ways in which our system works on a day to day basis is simply too important to not pay any mind to, especially on such an influential campus like BU.
We as students are primarily here to make strides towards our future careers, but we are also here to develop as citizens. Our status as individual citizens is often looked over and the further understanding that a fair and true government helps to establish and protect that citizenship is imperative to our lives here at BU.
