On Monday night, the Boston University student body was captivated by the BU Men’s Hockey Team’s thrilling victory in the Beanpot Tournament finale.’ The Beanpot is one of the most important school spirit events of the entire year, and one might expect that BU’s Student Union president would be there to show support for his school.’ But for some reason, Union President Matt Seidel decided instead that the perfect time to hold a General Assembly meeting would be during this much-anticipated game.
It’s obvious that this meeting was doomed from the start.’ It’s common sense that meeting attendance is going to be very low when the pride and joy of BU athletics is going for its 29th Beanpot title.’ But even more disturbing is what Seidel decided to do when a quorum could not be reached: he chose to ignore his own rules.’
A constitution, even one for a student union is not something that one can just break whenever it is most convenient.’ It doesn’t matter if Seidel believes that the proposals up for vote on Monday ‘couldn’t wait,’ he is not the one who should be passing this judgment; that is the job of the majority of the General Assembly.’ But were these proposals so urgent to begin with that they couldn’t even wait another day?’ The Union doesn’t have the power to make immediate changes to the course registration system in the first place, and it’s hard to believe that voting for Union beanies couldn’t be put off until the next meeting.’
Seidel, of course, can’t take all the blame. As president, his effectiveness is limited by the strength of the Union’s GA members.’ As mandated in the Student Union’s constitution,’ ‘All voting General Assembly members must attend all General Assembly meetings or appoint a proxy in their stead.” Understandably, some members were going to be at the hockey game, but it is stunning that so many were irresponsible enough to fail to appoint someone to go in their place.’
The Union has had a long history of failing to get things accomplished quickly. The way to move faster in implementing the changes that students want is through better communication and leadership.’ Circumventing its own constitution to expedite the process of passing initiatives may be acceptable to Siedel, but if the Union wants to get things done the right way, this kind of behavior cannot be tolerated.
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Check your facts.
You know, complaining like this out in the open is exactly the sort of tactic that gets employed by middle school girls in the lunchroom.<p/>”But for some reason, Union President Matt Seidel decided instead that the perfect time to hold a General Assembly meeting would be during this much-anticipated game.”<br/>”It’s common sense that meeting attendance is going to be very low when the pride and joy of BU athletics is going for its 29th Beanpot title.”<p/>Right, because they scheduled this meeting last monday night RIGHT AFTER BU beat Harvard so that it purposefully conflict with the championship game, not months in advance. This editorial is basically the same thing as the article that covered the meeting that was printed earlier in the week, except with more typos. Seriously, don’t you guys have a “find and replace” feature to make sure you spell Matt Seidel’s name right? If you hate the guy so bitterly, I’d imagine you’d have figured out how to spell his name by now.<p/>Why wasn’t he at the game? Well, probably because THERE WAS A STUDENT UNION MEETING. The real issue at hand here is that not enough voting members of the General Assembly did not appoint proxies in their place. This is the real problem, and what should have drawn your ire. But I guess when you have the blinders on, it’s difficult to see the world the way it really is.
Don’t blame GA members for not appointing proxies. First of all, if a meeting full of proxies had voted on this stuff you’d probably be coming out against that too (and I don’t know that I’d disagree).<p/>But the rest of this is spot on. I can’t remember a time during my four years that the Student Union ever even considered having a meeting during the Beanpot. The year I was in it we held a meeting on the last Monday in January and the third in February so everyone could go to the Beanpot.<p/>I think having a meeting on the day of the Beanpot should be grounds for removal from office since it shows a lack of representation of the Student Body. Oh, and violating the Constitution probably seals the deal there… If anyone really cares about this small and ineffective body.
Your grammar/editing is terrible.