Communication needed between AS, students

By David Wonpu

Disdain for politicians has always been a constant of human civilization. Decisions are magnified, codified and reduced to their lowest common denominator. Real human beings are reduced to a caricature. We don't know our public servants, and we could care less.

As a result, the public relates to its leadership with radical apathy. We rely on our pundits of choice, as well as on our family and friends, to form our opinions of just about everyone. We either don't care at all about being educated, or we seek further evidence to validate beliefs which have already been formed.

Such hour-long travesties as MSNBC's "Hardball" and Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" are crystalline examples of this mindset. Every "talking head" encounter begins with two individu1als who supposedly hold completely opposing views. Their views align when it comes to garnering attention and acquiring power, but, as the face-off escalates, it quickly devolves into a shouting match reminiscent of your 5-year-old brother watching "WWE Smackdown."

In today's style of government, shouting matches appear to be the only effective ticket. We must remain enraged, primitive and juvenile in order to even have a process. Every attack on your political party of choice instantly becomes an attack on your grandmother's oatmeal cookies. You feel like the person you voted for is the second coming of Christ, and the opposing ticket is akin to the sweat off Jessica Simpson's decidedly gargantuan, invariably shiny forehead.

This is an aspect of politics that not many members of Associated Students understand.

In the age of cowboy foreign policy, we don't want our leaders to be weak and unable to handle criticism. As public servants, they are supposed to be, as their tiresome tag line asserts, ours.

Yet there's something almost pathetic about would-be politicians on our campus who can't even handle The Santa Clara's cartoonist poking fun at the (admittedly god-awful) LINC channel, which broadcasts weekly senate meetings. Nobody watches that thing, so let's not pretend it was even remotely worth the publishing of a single letter to the editor.

There is a deep distrust among students of their own student government, which was reflected during the recent election in which 42 percent of voters cast their ballots for Adam Suleman and Hadyn Clark Renfort, whose platform was, essentially, "I'm not one of them." Students are willing to vote for the extreme in hopes of avoiding another inevitable year of the same.

In a recent poll conducted on The Santa Clara's Web site, 41 percent of respondents said they don't even know what AS does.

That's a shame because, as much as AS should toughen up and act like actual politicians (instead of exhibiting the immature and condescending attitudes some of them exhibit), the student body at large has a responsibility to become informed about what their student government does for them. Activities like this year's self-defense classes show a real effort to try and improve our quality of life. More of these activities would be great for our campus. And they would also help the AS reputation. It's not that AS doesn't do anything, as the student responses to The Santa Clara poll suggest, but students shouldn't be wondering where and how the AS members spend their time.

The life of an AS member is not simple or easy. As much as we blame them for the lack of progress at Santa Clara regarding such issues as diversity, we can't forget that the real power belongs to the autocratic administration.

Santa Clara's administration considers the university to be a business, and in a business, money matters. The administration understands that the long-term success of the school will always lie in admitting as many wealthy students as possible.

As much as the school is replete with individuals who are thoughtful and aware, we are also home to students who have nothing better to do than send the Santa Clara Community Action Program homophobic e-mails in response to the Drag Show. And these aren't isolated incidents. Of course, the administration understands there is a correlation, but it must put the financial health of the school above the social health of its denizens.

AS is placed in the middle of a dissatisfied student body and a dangerously passive administration obsessed with stuffing its coffers and pleasing its donors. Perhaps it's time for both AS and the students it's supposed to represent to focus their collective ire on a roomful of old rich guys instead of at each other.

Maybe the first step is for AS to understand the nature of being a public servant. Candidates for elected offices will always have enough friends to win elections, no matter how many other people vote. But each time they see right through us in the hallway or attack us when we request discretionary funding, we never forget, even if they never remember.

David Wonpu is a junior English major.