Letters
Issue date: 6/2/09 Section: Opinion
The?Highlander welcomes letters. Please include your name, year and major. The Highlander does not edit letters. All submissons should be less than 400 words and sent in Rich Text Format to highlanderops@ucr.edu.
What is ASUCR?
When students ask me what ASUCR is, I would tell them it was the Associated Students of the University of California, Riverside which is their student government. Now due to recent events ranging from our student body presidents spending $4700 on missed flights for herself and her roommate, to the legitimacy of the incoming senator elects I have to ask myself what does ASUCR stand for, and unfortunately from what I have witnessed it is clear that ASUCR stands for the apathetic students of UCR. This is because no matter what happens year after year in ASUCR the students don't care. It seems like every year ASUCR either has some corrupt individual or some incompetent individuals who tend to make sizeable mistakes. Don't get me wrong, there are those in ASUCR who do care for the student body, but the problem is bigger than ASUCR senate not caring. The problem quite simply is students don't care. For example when our current ASUCR president missed her flight and charge plane tickets without checking the price for a trip to D.C. their was a great deal of commotion among the students, I can recount many students coming to me telling me they wanted her out. When the vote finally came it was 12 to 7, nothing happened, only because we missed the 2/3 vote by 1 vote. Now if the students really cared about this issue like they said they did, they themselves could have done something about it. They could have started a recall themselves and removed her from office using the power the students have according to their student constitution. Maybe the students didn't know, maybe that's why so many are apathetic.
This is important because ASUCR needs checks and balances; we need the students to balance their student government. It is evident that 20 ASUCR senators are not capable of properly representing the over 15,000 undergraduate's students enrolled at UCR. We the students need to understand that every quarter we pay an ASUCR fee. ASUCR senators are supposed to represent and fight for student issues, which I believe ASUCR is capable of doing. But in order to do so ASUCR needs more student involvement. Now we face another troubling issue, the recent elections as were mentioned in the Highlander article "ASUCR Senate elections results raise suspicion" with their terribly skewed results raising concerns. The incoming ASUCR senate already faces allegations of corruption and unethical election practices due to the use of an "invisible campaign" by the leaders of the incoming senate. During the elections they trespassed in dorms, filled in peoples' votes for them, campaigned for people they didn't even know in order to spilt the vote and prevent others from winning and there are by far many more allegations that do not show proper conduct fit for your student government. The vast majority of the incoming senators won in an epic landslide (epically questionable). Yet the majority of the incoming senate was nowhere to be found in the debates, they weren't campaigning in the open, there was a shadow of secrecy that encompassed them. Why are there so many questions for something that shouldn't be surrounded with controversy? One reason maybe that for the incoming year 09-10 ASUCR will be controlled by a group of people who have a hidden agenda. From what I have witnessed at the ASUCR officer elections they choose to seat their friends over qualified individuals. Many individuals who the incoming senate seated had no idea what the officer position entailed. Now is this not cronyism? During senator transition when I asked the new senate why they ran, many said it was "to pad their resume." The new senate is already proving to be questionable. Instead of saying to better the school, they said to "pad their resumes." Is this what the students need? The new senate is full of inexperience people who don't even know what their job is and have already displayed massive cronyism. Now what to do? As students to do nothing could prove to be quite as insidious as doing nothing about our current president's airport debacle. So I urge the students to consider these facts and to pay attention closely to what the senate is doing, they will control how your money is used next year. Students need to make it clear to the incoming senate that ASUCR answers to the students, not the other way around; and if more events transpire the students themselves could take matter into their own hands by starting a recall, if they deem it necessary.
What is ASUCR?
When students ask me what ASUCR is, I would tell them it was the Associated Students of the University of California, Riverside which is their student government. Now due to recent events ranging from our student body presidents spending $4700 on missed flights for herself and her roommate, to the legitimacy of the incoming senator elects I have to ask myself what does ASUCR stand for, and unfortunately from what I have witnessed it is clear that ASUCR stands for the apathetic students of UCR. This is because no matter what happens year after year in ASUCR the students don't care. It seems like every year ASUCR either has some corrupt individual or some incompetent individuals who tend to make sizeable mistakes. Don't get me wrong, there are those in ASUCR who do care for the student body, but the problem is bigger than ASUCR senate not caring. The problem quite simply is students don't care. For example when our current ASUCR president missed her flight and charge plane tickets without checking the price for a trip to D.C. their was a great deal of commotion among the students, I can recount many students coming to me telling me they wanted her out. When the vote finally came it was 12 to 7, nothing happened, only because we missed the 2/3 vote by 1 vote. Now if the students really cared about this issue like they said they did, they themselves could have done something about it. They could have started a recall themselves and removed her from office using the power the students have according to their student constitution. Maybe the students didn't know, maybe that's why so many are apathetic.
This is important because ASUCR needs checks and balances; we need the students to balance their student government. It is evident that 20 ASUCR senators are not capable of properly representing the over 15,000 undergraduate's students enrolled at UCR. We the students need to understand that every quarter we pay an ASUCR fee. ASUCR senators are supposed to represent and fight for student issues, which I believe ASUCR is capable of doing. But in order to do so ASUCR needs more student involvement. Now we face another troubling issue, the recent elections as were mentioned in the Highlander article "ASUCR Senate elections results raise suspicion" with their terribly skewed results raising concerns. The incoming ASUCR senate already faces allegations of corruption and unethical election practices due to the use of an "invisible campaign" by the leaders of the incoming senate. During the elections they trespassed in dorms, filled in peoples' votes for them, campaigned for people they didn't even know in order to spilt the vote and prevent others from winning and there are by far many more allegations that do not show proper conduct fit for your student government. The vast majority of the incoming senators won in an epic landslide (epically questionable). Yet the majority of the incoming senate was nowhere to be found in the debates, they weren't campaigning in the open, there was a shadow of secrecy that encompassed them. Why are there so many questions for something that shouldn't be surrounded with controversy? One reason maybe that for the incoming year 09-10 ASUCR will be controlled by a group of people who have a hidden agenda. From what I have witnessed at the ASUCR officer elections they choose to seat their friends over qualified individuals. Many individuals who the incoming senate seated had no idea what the officer position entailed. Now is this not cronyism? During senator transition when I asked the new senate why they ran, many said it was "to pad their resume." The new senate is already proving to be questionable. Instead of saying to better the school, they said to "pad their resumes." Is this what the students need? The new senate is full of inexperience people who don't even know what their job is and have already displayed massive cronyism. Now what to do? As students to do nothing could prove to be quite as insidious as doing nothing about our current president's airport debacle. So I urge the students to consider these facts and to pay attention closely to what the senate is doing, they will control how your money is used next year. Students need to make it clear to the incoming senate that ASUCR answers to the students, not the other way around; and if more events transpire the students themselves could take matter into their own hands by starting a recall, if they deem it necessary.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Concerned Student
Concerned Student
posted 6/03/09 @ 10:54 AM PST
So what? ASUCR has always been corrupt and will always be corrupt.
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