(part 4 of 4 of my article that appeared in the school newspaper).

Thursday night, the State Board of Education approved a 5.01% percent fee increase for ISU. The U of I received a 5% increase and BSU a 6.16%. It was interesting to read some of the articles written about it and how proud President Sargent was and is about ISU asking for the lowest increase and then receiving one of the lowest increases (though not the lowest).

He is also celebrating the fact that ISU is now the cheapest state university in Idaho, which is true; we are $10 a semester cheaper than BSU and U of I. Big whoop. And the current student leaders who are trying to take credit for a lower fee increase? Talk about irony and dishonesty. This is a group that has backed Reed Gym Options 3 and 2, both of which would have increased student fees enormously. If anyone should celebrate the victory it should be students because WE voted down Option 3, WE voted down Option 2. The fee increase was lower because of the students, not because of President Sargent.

It will undoubtedly be said that because I was behind the anti-Orange Party campaign and because I chose to write this article, this provides proof that I am motivated by a hatred for Orange Party members. First of all, I don't hate Orange Party members. I hate the actions of many Orange Party members, I hate the broken promises they made, I hate that only former Orange Party members have offered an apology for their actions (at least 4 former Orange Party members, 3 current Senators and 1 former Senator, have since renounced the Orange Party and all it stood for this year), and I hate what the Orange Party has done to student representation and to student government.

Lest you think that the corruption, lies, distortions, and cronyism ends with the semester, remember that students voted to elect Jennifer Brown as President for the next school year. Also remember that many Orange Party candidates won their respective races and a majority of the Senate next year will be comprised of Orange Party members. Know also that at least one Orange Party member has admitted to accessing their opponent's email account to find out their campaign strategies. Shameful.

Next month I will graduate, but many of you will remain to complete your college careers. I beg of you to watch what your elected and non-elected leaders are doing, because while they claim to be acting in the best interests of students, they are doing anything but. Make your leaders accountable, resurrect student representation, and take back ASISU. The arrogance, acts of cronyism, and dishonesty which has governed ASISU student government cannot be allowed to continue.

Lastly, don't forget the words of Lord Acton, who stated, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

(part 3 of 4 of my article that appeared in the school newspaper and will appear in the Idaho State Journal soon)

President Sargent, and numerous other Senators, in defending the actions of Joelle Brown and Hansen, claimed that our Supreme Court Justices didn't know any better and were too na've and uneducated to know what the by-laws require of them. Uh, excuse me? The Supreme Court Justices and Senators swear to uphold the by-laws, yet don't know what the by-laws actually are? That provides yet another reason to impeach Brown and Hansen.President Sargent then claimed that 8-10 weeks had passed since the elections (8-10 weeks is a blatant lie) and that any moves to impeach should have occurred sooner (some Senators began a move to impeach a few weeks ago but were stopped by current Vice-President, Jennifer Brown). I don't believe fighting for ethics, fairness, and neutrality has an expiration date, but that's just me.

Since Jennifer Brown was elected as President for the next school year, this means that Joelle will have to recuse herself from every case involving Jennifer Brown, the Executive Branch and any Orange Party member. The same is true for Kyrsten. This means that in many possible cases next year, a full Supreme Court can't be employed and either the Supreme Court can't hear a case, or they can only let the most biased Justice recuse herself/himself. Justices are paid to hear cases, yet Joelle will be expected to recuse herself from a majority of them, if not all of them. She had to recuse herself this year from every single case (this didn't prevent her from listening in on one complaint and offering her opinion about it to other Justices). But before you assume the Supreme Court truly earned their monthly stipend by hearing cases this year, know that they only heard one case and refused to hear the numerous others that all dealt with important issues that will affect ASISU for many years to come.

Current Vice-President, Jennifer Brown, as part of the Sargent/Brown ticket that ran last year, made a promise to keep student fees low. However, Jennifer Brown did anything but keep that promise this year. Jennifer Brown campaigned for the highest student fee increase in recent history. Not only did she spend hours painting a window in the Student Union Building encouraging students to vote yes on Reed Gym Option 3, but she also went around with a laptop on voting days asking students to vote yes for Option 3. Essentially, she took the trust we gave her and threw it back in our faces. Then, when she was campaigning to be President, she took credit for at least two ideas, both related to Reed Gym, even though she actively fought both ideas. We have all seen candidates take credit for things they had nothing to do with. Have we ever seen a candidate take credit for ideas they fought tooth and nail against?

(part 2 of 4 of my article I wrote for the school newspaper)

Noah House, Vice President for ASISU Idaho Falls, stated, "If it wasn't so ridiculous, it would be absolutely hilarious that we have student senators questioning what some of the primary pieces of the project (Reed Gym Options) are. I thought the Senate would have sent this to referendum. I am surprised that they didn't" (Bengal 1/31/07).

In what could very well be the best decision President Sargent made all year, he exercised his right to veto any Senate decision and told the student Senate that because they sent Option 3 to a student referendum, they should do the same for Option 2. It is quite sad and pathetic that President Sargent actually needed to exercise his veto power. This veto, and the negative publicity some Senators received for being so asinine, caused the student Senate to finally send it to a student referendum, where, again, students voted down a fee increase.

We can all agree that a Supreme Court should remain unbiased, fair, and neutral. Unfortunately, this hasn't been the case for the ASISU Supreme Court this year. Two Supreme Court Justices, Joelle Brown and Kyrsten Hansen, actively campaigned for the Brown/Wheat ticket. One of the Justices, Joelle Brown, Jennifer Brown's sister (yes, Jennifer Brown did help appoint her own sister to the Supreme Court), campaigned for Brown/Wheat and the Orange Party. All of this despite the by-law which states that "Supreme Court Justices must act in a manner that is professional and impartial in matters pertaining to ASISU" (Section 11 Clause 3 C) and "ASISU Supreme Court Justices must be impartial and unbiased in any matter being discussed by the Senate or being brought before the court" (Section 11 Clause 1).

Anyone familiar with ASISU would tell you that a significant majority of cases that come before the Supreme Court involve either the elections and/or the Executive Branch. Joelle Brown and Kyrsten Hansen, by blatantly breaking at least two by-laws, placed themselves in a position where they should have been impeached (the Senate voted not to impeach either of them, votes were 9-6).

(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.

and I told them so last night. I spoke for about 10 minutes and told the student Senate that they have not represented students, that students are disenfranchised, and that what they have done is despicable. I read them the definition of cronyism and said that they have pissed off students so much this year that next year they will "watch every move you make." I said a lot of things, most of which won't make much sense to you, my readers, because you probably don't realize what has been done in our name here at ISU.

But I do want to say that I did thank the Senators who have represented students and I specifically named one Senator, though a former Senator as she resigned last semester. I spoke of this Senator, Senator Rowe, and said that students were sad when she resigned and that she will go down in the history of "this university" as one of the best senator's we have ever had. I ended by saying "shame on you" to the Senate and went off a little bit more and then I passed out thank you cards to the Senator's who had tried to represent students, though some of them had horrid votes...

I want to get the audio of the meeting and if I get this, I can provide more details. Also, since the cat is now out of the bag, the student newspaper, The Bengal, is publishing an article I wrote. It will be in tomorrow's Bengal and is quite long. I don't know if I want to post the whole thing all at once (over 1600 words) or if I want to break it up into a few posts. I addressed student government as a whole, then each branch of student government, so I could break it up into smaller pieces. Any suggestions would be great.

Oh yes, before I forget, I have received one response from a Senator. She is technically my Senator (Senate from Graduate Studies). She was offended that I pointed her out (though not by name) when I stated that "my Senator" hasn't represented me and therefore I have had to adopt other Senators, at which point I looked at two specific Senators, who are now also dear friends of mine.

Lest I am accused of favoring friends who are Senators, again, know that these two only became friends of mine in February, after they had my support in their bid to become the next ASISU President and Vice-President. They are amazingly wonderful and my fear for the future of student representation is eased when I realize that they will be here next year, though not involved in ASISU directly.