The year that student representation died (part 1)  

(part 1 of 4 of my article I wrote for the school newspaper)

The school year of 2006-2007 will go down in history as the year that student representation died at Idaho State University. As a student who holds no position within ASISU student government, I have watched with both interest and disgust as the student Senate, Executive Branch, and Supreme Court-all three branches of government, have ignored the will of students in favor of what they themselves want. Never before have I witnessed such selfish and elitist behavior as that exhibited by all three branches of ASISU government.

Student representation has only been offered by a minority of student senators and far too often, their dissenting votes and voices have been ignored, maligned, and laughed at. This is unacceptable.

The first obvious example can be traced back to the Reed Gym Option 3 ($22.2 million option-the most expensive of the three) vote that took place on October 30, 2006, wherein the student Senate voted (12-8) to approve Option 3, but thankfully sending it to a student referendum as well. The students, who have grown tired of increasing fees, overwhelmingly (69.4%) voted down Option 3.

That same referendum featured a proposed new constitution for ASISU. The new constitution, a document that would remove some checks and balances and allow itself to be amended far too easily did pass, but encountered several problems and as of now, we are still operating under the "old" constitution.

On January 22, 2007, the student Senate voted (11-8) to approve Option 2 without sending it to a student referendum. In fact, Senator Kelissa Borrowman, College of Education, "called for the vote on Option 2 after denying a friendly amendment to put the issue up for a referendum vote" (Bengal. 1/31/07). Former Senate member (Senate Pro-Tem) and ASISU Vice-President, Trevor Jensen, stated, "This is the most arrogant, indefensible vote that I have ever seen taken by ASISU. It's a sad day in student representation when the minority of ASISU is representing the majority of students (Bengal 1/31/07)." Indeed it was.