Student government: worthless.

[Dollputz]

Student government never fails to annoy me. It is clear to me that student government has never done anything for the majority of students at any university (no matter how loud they shout about student empowerment), and I don’t see how these people can be happy just to receive their title, put it on their resume, and proceed to do nothing. It aggravates me. When I am dean (which I have no desire to be but it works for the metaphor) there will be no facade of student government. Uni is not a democracy. Whoever is in charge dictates what is going to happen. If students want to change things, let them come to me (the dean remember) on an individual basis, and I will evaluate their suggestions. Save me from students screaming that they are not empowered and that they want [insert issue here]. Makes me sick.

[geggle]

I reckon the function of student government is to provide a training ground for naescent "young xxx" pollies.

[utopian]

Student Governments allow us to get used to the faces that we will be trying to put bullets through 15 years from now.

[robotoverflow]

The only reason student governments exist is because Deans and headmasters don't want to have to deal with every students complaints and suggestions since they probably don't really care about them and wouldn't do anything about it even if they did. The fucked up thing is that when the student government doesn't want to do anything about anything, there's no-one left to do the grunt work except for the students themselves.

[beowulf437]

As I told my son yesterday "University is not real life" all real issues in universities are controled by the board of reagents. The students can only make suggestions (not that they are even listened to). Some of the rules and regulations of universities have nothing to do with real life anyway.

[Grumblefish]

University gives you a piece of paper in exchange for large amounts of time and money.

[Cassa]

I got my piece of paper! Hoorah, it'll sure look pretty decorating my wall because as I've said before in IRC it sure as fucking hell isn't going to get me a job

The student government at my uni got us free beer sometimes, I think that was the only truly useful thing they ever did.

[Diva]

we had two organisations at my uni - the Students' Council, which was the 'activist' body (ie the trainee politicians); and the Union Board, which ran the service outlets etc.

I spent time on both of them - I ran and got elected for SCR because I was sick of the way funding for clubs was allocated. They had a crap setup whereby you got more money based on what 'type' of club you were, and of course a political club with 15 members (the minimum size to get funding) got more than a social club with 100+ members. We set up a new committee etc, and it was restructured so that funding was base totally on membership numbers, as long as the members were registered students who paid $2 joining fee (to stop the membership lists being circulated at the bar).

I ran for the Union Board because once I became a part time / evening student, I was pissed that all the food outlets were closed by 7pm when the Uni has classes until 10pm. I caused enough fuss and got enough publicity about it that the kept one outlet open until 10 each night (the coffee shop). When I was in first year a few of them were open late, but that got changed due to 'cost cutting'. However, I believe a non-profit service union (as opposed to a political or workers union) should put member services before the profit they aren't allowed to have :rolleyes:

Anyway, as a non-aligned independent, it was often hard going (especially when one of the clueless first year morons on the SRC with me claimed that because I didn't belong to a faction I was 'outside the political process'). But I managed to get what I was elected for done, so it is possible - it just requires getting up people's noses so they realise you won't go away or be fobbed off. And if necessary be prepared to bawl out the president of the union at the top of your voice in a crowded uni bar, if that is what it takes for him to act :D Working with the Women's Room, the University newspaper and the Union magazine for publicity allowed me to reach a wider audience, and it was suprising just how many evening students were prepared to sign a petition once someone else organised it :D :D

But yeah geggle, you are correct. So many labor, liberal, democrat and greens candidates around Sydney are people i know from my uni days. Most of them I like, even if I didn't agree with all their policies etc. Some were a bit scarey in their fanatacism though :eek:

[Scythe]

To quote Homer Simpson "When are people going to learn. Democracy doesn't work!"

[Al]

The title says it all...

I knew a few of those people when I went through uni. Most of them were LOSERS! The few that were dedicated to doing something useful were usually so disheartend after a few years they gave up...

[svvampy]

Originally posted by big al
... after a few years they gave up...

After a few years I was out of there and glad to be gone.

The only thing the student council seemed to be good for at Club Maq was embezzling funds, running up phone bills and adding to the resumes of utter wankers.

[kleph]

student government is a fumbling attempt at group masturbation. it's really good at finding folks who are ideal for a life of politics since it tends to leave any decent people with a feeling of nausea.

when i was in college and dipping my feet into journalism i had the good/mis fortune to be at a school with an excellent paper that was being run into the ground by an idiotic administrator. we wrote a lot of great stories and, for awhile, were competing with the two local major dalies.

the most irksome aspect of the whole thing was how the student government initially bleated about how fucked up we were for taking the admininstration to task (in the confines of their own meetings, of course).

i spent my time busting my ass writing stories that were constantly under fire from the administration, threatened with lawsuits by activist groups and trying to meet deadlines because of protesters outside our office.

and, when the writing was on the wall, then the SG began lamenting loudly, publically and at length about how terrible it all was and how they were going to lead the the healing process for the university.

whatever.

[druid]

Whoa. Things really seem to be different there. Our student government is pretty sensible. They are elected with a university wide election (with cute little party-like alliances) and the term is two years.

They've actually done a lot of good and strive on improving student conditions. One example would be building student housing from their own funds. They also comment on national issues, usually against some crap the parliament tries to introduce and seeing their statements quoted in newspapers or the chairman interviewed in the evening news is not unheard of.

Also, student goverments - or student unions like we call them - from all universities form an alliance which seems to have a moderate amount of clout when it comes to affairs concerning us. Membership for the student union is the only tuition fee I pay. It's around 80 € per semester and includes healthcare. On a lighter note they organise 3 big parties annually and invest a lot in the welcoming of freshmen and their introductory weeks. They actually train the willing older students to perform as tutors.

[KrisEz]

bimp