Memoirs of a Student Senate Candidate: An Open Letter to All Students

Paydon Miller

Undergraduate/Political Science and Journalism

As I begin to type this article, it is 9:16 p.m. on Wednesday, April 14. I am approximately 21 hours away from finding out if I have earned the right to have a seat on Student Senate, a much more powerful body than most seem to realize. I have busted my ass for both my personal campaign and for the campaign of two dear friends, Aaron Brewster and Armon Tabrizi, for two or three weeks now and, coupled with the extreme workload I have on my plate at this very moment, I’m pretty damn well exhausted.

But I’m also pissed. Allow me to vent.

I am struck by the almost militant way in which most student take a disinterest in the political goings-on on campus. I can honestly understand someone not giving a shit about city council and local school board elections. I love all things politics, but I don’t blame those who don’t. The minor elections just aren’t for everyone.

Here’s an eye opener: Student Senate controls over $3,000,000 in student segregated fees. I would think that a group of people that are so financially vested in where the six hundred dollars goes would want to be best served by that money. Every student that didn’t vote is basically saying, "Here! Take my money and piss it away on whatever you like. I prefer not reading a single piece of literature, attending a debate or taking any kind of an interest in anything outside of how blitzed I got last weekend."

Do I sound bitter? Because I am. A very smart woman once said to me, "On campus, five percent of people do 95 percent of the work." Never have I seen this more in action than in these elections.

If you did vote, disregard all I am saying. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking a vested interest in your school. But current numbers I have to say that one out of every twelve students voted.

I am bitter. I’m bitter because a body of 30 people that controls all that money has THIRTY-FIVE people of over 12,000 students running. I’m bitter because I actually heard this exact line from a particularly stupid girl yesterday: "I don’t care where my money goes."

But most of all, I’m bitter because while the three presidential/vice presidential candidates all have been running a clean race thus far, current student senators have dragged this entire process through the mud.

We have actually had NEGATIVE ads in a fucking STUDENT SENATE ELECTION. And this literature had straight out lies in it. I know for a fact that many student senators backed Brewster, though I won’t name any names. To make matters even more disgusting, this "mystery" author called Brewster’s having been here longer than most a reason he is unfit to be our president. If anyone can tell me one way how many credits Aaron Brewster has earned affects his actual ability to govern and represent students, I’ll eat my fucking shoes.

The back-handed, ill-willed means some people (I won’t name names…though I seriously want to. I wish I had it in me to do the same thing you did, but I won’t stoop to that level) have used make me wonder why I care so much about getting elected to Student Senate.

The most heart-breaking part of all this is the fact that all the candidates – Michael Umhoefer, Amber Bretl, Casey Driscoll, Adam Sorelle, Aaron Brewster and Armon Tabrizi – have all run stellar campaigns. I have joked and hung out with both opposing candidates, even though they knew I was helping the Brewster/Tabrizi ticket. That alone says enough about the character of all four of them to make me certain they would do a great job as president.

No, it was a current student senator and the current president that were taking shots at Brewster. For the majority of you that don’t know, Tim Lauer, YOUR president of the last year (who probably shouldn’t have won the office at all…but that’s a story for another day) made a group on facebook called "Students for Truth in Government," which was a group completely dedicated to "exposing Aaron Brewster’s [lies and mistruths]." What it was, in truth, was personal attacks on Aaron Brewster by Lauer, as well as a few current student senators. This was all sparked by Brewster’s articles in the Spectator and The Flip Side, which were critical of Lauer’s term. Most of Lauer’s "points" were simply him defending his actions, while taking the occasional personal shot at Aaron.

Might I remind you, at no time did ANY of the six candidates attack each other personally. This was all at the hands of current senators.

The sheer pettiness and thin-skin it must take to take the actions I just described to you is mind boggling. Part of accepting a position on Senate is being able to take some criticism, and this is especially true if you want to be president. Disagreeing with the actions a past leader takes does not make a candidate unfit…only different. That’s a distinction that somehow got muddled in "Students for Truth in Government."

All these actions do nothing but push the disinterested ones away from potential interest in Student Senate. I don’t blame them. Why should they care about a group of students that supposedly represent them, but somehow find the time to make clever Photoshopped literature comparing Aaron Brewster to a "terrorist" because of a tacky, albeit funny, logo that caricaturizes the way people on Senate view him? This reflects poorly on Student Senate and everyone involved in it. It turned a somewhat serious student organization into a middle school student council where personal conflicts took precedent over the stuff that actually matters.

On a related note, where in all perfect Hell does The Spectator get off actually endorsing a presidential candidate? I don’t care if they’ve done it in the past, it’s supposed to be an unbiased news source. You can publish all the personal editorials you want, but to endorse a candidate as a publication is both irresponsible and downright stupid. It calls your coverage of the entire election into question…after all, you made it quite clear that all but two of your seventeen staffers who voted supported the Umhoefer ticket and criticized the other two tickets quite in depth.

__

It’s Thursday morning now.

I found out at about 6:00 p.m. yesterday that Umhoefer/Bretl beat out Brewster/Tabrizi by about 200 votes – a semi-considerable margin. I’m disappointed obviously. I’m not disappointed so much because Aaron and Armon lost, nor because Michael and Amber won. Michael and Amber earned the victory and they will do a fantastic job.

No, I’m disappointed because the tactics taken by certain senators and our president/vice president have been rewarded. The underhanded literature, the petty squabbling, the distortion of facts and the talking behind people’s backs trying to undermine a legitimate campaign has been rewarded.

When the results of the election were announced, I was in the Student Senate office. I heard the reactions of certain senators. I heard people say they were ecstatic not because Michael Umhoefer and Amber Bretl had won, but "because [Aaron] Brewster had lost." Their words, not mine.

So let me give a big "fuck you" to anyone who voted not FOR a candidate, but AGAINST another one.

And I hear senators all the time wondering why so few people care about what we do in Student Senate. "Why don’t they care where their money goes?" This is why.

I know I’m beating a dead horse, but I’m going to say this one more time. None of this slew of negative campaign and petty squabbles were at the hands of the six candidates. Let that sink in.

There is hope yet. We have a new group of senators coming in now, many of whom I’m familiar with. They’re all phenomenal people. I ask all you people who have been turned off of Student Senate to give it a chance once more. Don’t let a few (Three. I mean three.) people turn you away from an incredibly interesting body of elected students who all want to use your money wisely and honestly care about what you think.

Let me be clear that I am absolutely thrilled to be able to work with the other senators. They’re (with a few exceptions) all reasonable, respectable people. Many of them feel the way that I do about how the election took place, but not nearly as extreme in some regards. I genuinely look forward to helping to alter the perception and actions of Student Senate to actually represent the students again instead of getting caught up in petty inter-Senate squabbles and the social club that comes with being in Senate.

The election is behind us, and behind me, now. Michael and Amber deserve their victory and ran a legitimately great campaign. So did Casey and Adam. So did Aaron and Armon. I don’t foresee any ill will between the various factions and I legitimately hope we can take steps in the right direction to bring the "Student" part back into Student Senate.

Here’s to hoping that next year’s senators can act like fucking grown ups.