SGC. : roup W ith a Lost ission
A Council Member Visions Two Roles Still Open to the Organization
0y DAVID KESSEL
TIS ARTICLE is about the
Student Government Cou ncil
-its character(s), its problems,
and perhaps its future.
It is not a defense of, or an at-
tack upon the group. It is at-
tempt at analysis from vhin. in-
stead of the usual criticism from
without.
The point of view represented
here is n cssarily that of one in-
dividual; it is not the result ofx
the deliber.ations by any commit-'
tee for valtsating or re-evalutat-
ing student government.
STUDENT government, on this
campus, would seem to he in
an advantageous position. Recos
nixed by the Board of Regents,
consulted by faculty and admiis
tration, its most every move re-
ported by The Daily, authorized to
regulate a lure section in the
realm of student affairs, SGC
seems to have capabilities to burn.k
Sometimes, it looks as if most
of these capabilities have already
been burned, with the remainder,
badly singed.
So the question arises: has stu-a
dent government become a fruit- u
less and sterile activity, attracting
each year fewer try-outs than any
other "major" campus activity?
Has it become the "club" of a lim- An Important Nigi
ited group of power and prestige-
hungry people who make the SGC So various Charlie McCarthy's
offices their club-house, the SGC (and Mortimer Snerds) roamed
Plan their Bible, SGC election about talking about high cost of
night their "Sacre du Printemps?" living, bad dormitory food, schol-
arships, bicycle problems, Sigma
IT IS unfortunately true that the Kappa, Deans of Women and dis-
control of student government crimination.
has fallen into the hands of a
small group of people, mostly by HE ELECTION seemed to be a
default. test of ballot stuffing skill.
But as fewer qualified, In- After the election, four thous-
formed, and talented students and voters forgot about their duly
show any interest in this activity, elected representatives for anoth-
it naturally follows that student er six months, and eight new
government becomes filled with leaders of student opinion were
less qualified, less informed, less seated on the Council. Three were
talented people, and suffers ac- new to the group, five were from
cordingly. the "gang;" they had been active
Election campaigns are prepos- in the student government game
terous, with incredible statements before.
tossed off everywhere, and a pa- Curiously enough, this new SGC
thetic lack of audience response was somewhat unlike the past
all around. group. And as, one by one, the ex-
During the show last April, the officio members were replaced, it
twenty-odd candidates spoke their soon became evident to critical
lines to m o s t l y disinterested observers that the new SGC was a
groups who could hear speakers distinct cut above the old.
profess to be "running on a Pan- Some claimed that this was be-
hel-IFC ticket" without a shudder. cause the group could hardly have
Within my recollection, only at gotten much worse. But whatever
Martha Cook were candidates giv- the reason, it seemed that much
en any sort of meaningful ques- of the old "club" routine was gone,
tioning, and most of them were and that things were looking up
d e v as t a t e d. But the Martha for student government.
Cookies were the exception, and
apathy was the rule. HINGS must look up a great
deal more if SGC is ever to
David Kessel was elected to become the campus force it ought
the Student Governmenf to be-
Council last March. Certainly, on this campus, there
are a great many students who
At at SGC: Sigma Kappa
1t
'f
S
t
t
}
I
could revolutionize student gov-
ernment; make it a really vital
and productive organization, ca-
pable of helping create a better
educational community for us all.
But these' people are not inter-
ested. At times, it seems that no
one is really interested except for
some Daily writers and a few
hopelessly overburdened SGC
members.
The Council itself is partly re-
sponsible for this situation be-
cause of the manner in which it
has adopted a sort of junior-grade
spoils system.
From time to time, the Council
appoints people to various com-
mittees, and to vacancies on the
Council itself. Until recently,
Council vacancies were always
filled by members of the "appoint-
ments pool," a small group of
camp followers who have shown
great interest, although not neces-
sarily much talent, in the leader-
ship game.
This dismal trend was recently
reversed with the appointment of
an "outsider" to a Council vacan-
cy. But most other appointments
invariably go to loyal workers; a
fine reward for faithful service,
to be sure, but hardly the way to
get capable outsiders into the
government structure.
LAST SUMMER, the University
sent about 14 people to some-
thing called the National Student
Association Congress.
Most of these people were ap-
pointed on the basis of their years
of long and faithful service under
the purple and orchid banner of
student government.
The result: a delegation of half-j
informed people who, at a cost of
several hundred dollars, had a
jolly good vacation for 10 days
and, with one significant excep-
tion, accomplished just exactly
nothing.
It must hastily be added that
some of the students appointed to
various groups by the Council
have been quite satisfactory.
Some have been exceptional.
But this practice of blindly filling
positions with the nearest friend
at hand is long out of date,
THE RELATIONSHIP between
student government and the
administration has been rather
close in the past; now this too is
changing.
There are members of the ad-
ministration group who see every
decision by SGC as an encroach-
ment on their own sphere of
power. There are University offi-
cials who see student government
as a dangerous force which must
,
.]
,t
'sat5'~ g~ evitably on by the Univerity
g *iministration, wit students tos-
', { ing something as a result. But
roince they don't care, perhaps
they won't notice.
The statements above are a
trifle extreme, to be sure. Many of
them verge on the indefensible,
But there is a shred of truth in
all of them, if one looks closely,
INDIVIDUAL members of SGC
almost defy analysis. Here are
some of the usual campus snap-
judgments, which are later modi-
fied or refuted.
1) SGC officers (and most
members) cannot be said to "play"
at being administrators. They
work hard at it.
2) About the only people who
take SGC meetings seriously are
18 people sitting around a table,
and not always even them.
o. 3) Most men join SGC so that
they can call any sorority, even
on weekends, and find some im-
pressionable girl to "take out."
4) Most women join SGC to ex-
pend energies which other women
expend on the sofas of Stockwell
lounge.
5) SGC was not created to ful-
fill a real need (as were Panhel
and IFC), but was created to give
i Still in Violation a few people some political ex-
perience at the expense of every-
be kept fairly harmless and one else.
powerless, lest it somehow upset 6) If SGC should suddenly dis-
;he University applecart. There appear, all its functions could be
seems to be growing lack of trust given to two secretaries and an
of SGC by the administration, IBM machine and no one would
parallelling a lack of interest by be unhappy.
students. 7) If all the projects SGC has
The reasons for this condition started and never finished (e.g.,
are many; here is what seems to honor system, course evaluation
be the most important one: handbook, more precise marking
SGC does not, for the most system, campus chest, etc., etc.,)
part, represent student opinion were stacked one on top of the
other, the pile would reach high-
er than B u r t o n Tower but
wouldn't sound nearly so good.
8) The people who started all
these unfinished projects were
much more interested in getting
their names attached to some pos-
sibly worthwhile idea than in do-
ing any of the necessary work.
ONLY A few of these snap-
judgements can stand without
some real modification.
SGC officers (and most mem-
bers) do indeed work hard at be-
ing administrators. This is partly
because it is impossible for most
people to keep much of a sense
of proportion under the various
and assorted pressures SGC mem-
SGS's Actions . . bers are usually up against.
A somewhat less obvious rea-
son: Council members who find
that they are not great sources of
new and startling ideas (like they
had hoped) naturally turn to the
role of administrators and spend
much time worrying about when
to calendar J-Hop, bucket drives,
and how to keep bicycles off the
League front steps.
GC IS NOT much of a prestige
organization, in spite of much
opinion to the contrary.
Anyone who has the idea he can
Join the Council and become,
overnight, a social lion with party
x invitations dropping into his
mailbox like small fish drop into
the mouth of a hungry whale is in
Lots of Publicity for a big surprise.
Anyone who wants to join the
on this campus. There is no stu- Council so he can call any sorority
dent opinion. What SGC does or dormitory at any time and say
represent is "student leader" opin- to the first girl who answers the
ion. But "student leaders" are es- phone: "I'm Mortimer Snerd of
sentially junior administrators, so SGC. Who wants to spend a gay
they clash with University admin- weekend at my cabin in the north
istrators on some questions. Since woods" is simply out of his mind.
junior administrators are almost For the most part, when people
always more liberal, quicker to learn that Mortimer is an SGC
experiment, less likely to be tra- man, they react much the same
ditionalists than senior adminis- as if they had learned that he
trators, a clash is inevitable. had just won three truckloads of
bean sprouts on a TV quiz pro-
ACCORDING to a dean who, I gram: with some interest, but not
am certain, would rather not much admiration.
be named here, college adminis- If all SGC's functions were giv-
trators are' sometimes "long on en to some administration bu-
"tradition and short on brains." reaucrat, it would be amusing to
So the lines of battle are-clearly see how, fast the situation would
drawn; a battle which will be in- See SGC, Page 13
THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE
,a
Election Night: "Sacre du Printemps?"
Page Ten