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Dual Officer Policy Attacked

I have come to the conclusion that we students need cradle-to-graduation supervision. I might have said cradle-to-grave supervision, but the University no longer has input on our behavior once we graduate. Students just don’t know how to handle themselves at 20 or 21 years of age anymore. BU must be the guiding hand that will tell them what they can and cannot do. We need a rule that students may not be officers in two organizations at once, ensuring that even if these are the best students for the position, they should not be allowed to test the limits of their ability, nor may they provide the high quality of service for which their fellow students elected them. The head of SAO, Carolyn Norris, obviously knows better than the students what organizations they should join and lead, and she clearly ought to be able to determine the course of their lives in the future by deciding how many instances of leadership may appear on their resumé. What could Ethan Clay have been thinking when he wanted to serve the student body by being both a senator and the president of BU Free?

We must make sure students do not make the terrible mistake of offering their services to the BU community in more than one officer position. The outlandish reports that beefing up one’s resumé with multiple leadership positions leads to the acquisition of better jobs, and therefore, more influence and money needs to be squelched as the lie it is. The extra sleep BU students will get from not having to undergo the arduous task of holding two officer positions at once will give BU students a leg up when we compete for jobs with the students at that community college across the river, which is so foolish that it doesn’t even have BU’s dual officer policy.

Of course, as a result of the dual officer policy, our Student Union will continue to have the highest caliber of student leadership. The E-Board and senators will be composed of those students who are the best rested and have the most time on their hands because they aren’t leading a student group! Thankfully, the overwhelming number of students who run for positions on the Student Union Senate and E-Board may be accommodated because the leaders of those other pesky student organizations, like Ethan Clay, aren’t going to leave their officer positions in order to run for Student Union. We must make sure not to make the competition too difficult for other candidates whose lack of leadership experience should assure a smooth path to victory. It’s reassuring to know our Student Union E-Board will always possess the highest common denominator of BU students, those students with the least leadership experience.

The dual officer policy also makes for vibrant and healthy BU student groups. Every student group whose officer wishes to run for a Student Union position should certainly follow Carolyn Norris’ advice and create a group contingency plan, so everyone in the group knows they can’t be sure of the group’s future leadership until after elections are completed. To whit, John Smith, president of BU’s Hair Club, runs for Student Union E-Board, leading to healthy competition and argument within the hair club as members vie to be his replacement. If he loses his Student Union bid, however, the hair club member who thought he/she was ensured the presidency of the hair club will no doubt joyfully return to his or her former position in the organization to allow John to resume his post as president. The only potential downside to the dual officer policy is that some masochistic students might actually try to continue to run their organization without their officer title, leading to the terrible deprivation of energy that Assistant Dean of Students Allen Ward warns against. Preventative steps must be taken to battle the disease of wanting to lead too much.

BU’s students simply do not have the mental capacity to choose their student leaders themselves, so it makes good sense that SAO should decide who can and cannot be students leaders by citing important issues like “conflicts of interest” to disqualify them. Of course, the potential for a conflict of interest always leads to problems in reality, so BU’s generally unethical students shouldn’t be given the chance to act on their biases. Lastly, if for no other reason, we should keep the dual officer policy because it has been in place for many years. Antiquity is the essence of good policy.

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