Finals week was one of those weeks where I wish I could have seen the sun, the people, and the sanity in my life. Needless to say, that didn't happen. It was a little painful and I literally spent two whole days in my room writing finals. From Monday to Wednesday night I wrote over 10,000 words in essays, exams, and other assorted documents for my classes. But I still managed to make it through with a pretty good GPA, so it wasn't all bad.
Then came closing for Skarland. That was insane. So many checkouts, goodbyes, projects. It consumed my life. But then everything stopped for a moment. Nothing to do, no expectations, just waiting for a call on my job and then doing whatever I want on top of that. Its been pretty good. Yesterday I was really, REALLY sick though to the point where I couldn't stand up for more than a few minutes at a time due to the pain in my kidneys, but I think I'm almost over it. I'm pretty sure there is nothing that Gatorade can't fix.
So now here I am waiting for that call still and hoping that this summer stays as fun as I hope it does.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Friday, May 4, 2012
The Political Machine
***Protip - I have opinions. Deal with it.***
As a student, I like to think I have a voice in how my college is run. We have a student government here at UAF called ASUAF, or the Associated Students of the Univeristy of Alaska Fairbanks, and they are here to be the voice of the students when it comes to campus matters.
As stated in Article I of the ASUAF constitution, they are here "To provide an official and representative student organization with powers to receive complaints, investigate student problems, and participate in decisions involving the student body." This to me means that ASUAF is here to take student concerns and hopefully be instrumental in helping settle those concerns in the most efficient way possible.
Needless to say, from what I can tell, that doesn't happen under the current administration. This is where my problem lies.
So this last week we had "elections" for ASUAF President, Vice-President, and Senate members and the chance to vote on ballot measures for the upcoming year. Now, notice that I put elections in quotation marks. Why? Because this election was a joke. It was nothing more than a joke, a sham, a waste of everyone's time. I felt embarrassed to even be a part of that process. Every incumbent position (President, Vice-President, and Senate seats B, E, F, and H) were unopposed. That's right, there was no voting really. I was pigeon-holed into one decision for every position on the ballot.
That is unacceptable. I wasn't particularly happy with ASUAF's contributions this year under the administration of Freitag and Ball, so even the option of another candidate would have been a nice bit. However, that didn't happen. Instead UAF has the same officers as last year (with a few new Senate members). How can we feel as if we have adequate representation as students if we have no choice in who's elected? I mean, there are write-in options, but in reality those are just for those people who have nothing better to say in terms of a vote.
But lets put those problems aside for a second and look at an even larger problem with the ballot. So ASUAF ballots have 3 main purposes. They have officer elections, ballot measures, and survey questions. I've already established the officer elections as a complete joke, so lets look at their second purpose. Ballot measures are supposed to be the student voice making a choice for their school on a matter that the student government has deemed to be important for the student body. This election had only one. Just one. And what was this measure you may ask? It was a measure to determine whether there should be 14 or 20 senate seats within ASUAF. Now how does that really affect the issues that plague students here at UAF?
The answer: it doesn't.
Just another reason to show why this election was a joke.... Maybe one day it will be better.
Here's a link to the ASUAF constitution
http://asuaf.org/constitution
And here's the election results
http://asuaf.org/sites/default/files/Unofficial%20Results.pdf
And an editorial in the campus newspaper speaking about the same thing
http://www.uafsunstar.com/archives/13900
As a student, I like to think I have a voice in how my college is run. We have a student government here at UAF called ASUAF, or the Associated Students of the Univeristy of Alaska Fairbanks, and they are here to be the voice of the students when it comes to campus matters.
As stated in Article I of the ASUAF constitution, they are here "To provide an official and representative student organization with powers to receive complaints, investigate student problems, and participate in decisions involving the student body." This to me means that ASUAF is here to take student concerns and hopefully be instrumental in helping settle those concerns in the most efficient way possible.
Needless to say, from what I can tell, that doesn't happen under the current administration. This is where my problem lies.
So this last week we had "elections" for ASUAF President, Vice-President, and Senate members and the chance to vote on ballot measures for the upcoming year. Now, notice that I put elections in quotation marks. Why? Because this election was a joke. It was nothing more than a joke, a sham, a waste of everyone's time. I felt embarrassed to even be a part of that process. Every incumbent position (President, Vice-President, and Senate seats B, E, F, and H) were unopposed. That's right, there was no voting really. I was pigeon-holed into one decision for every position on the ballot.
That is unacceptable. I wasn't particularly happy with ASUAF's contributions this year under the administration of Freitag and Ball, so even the option of another candidate would have been a nice bit. However, that didn't happen. Instead UAF has the same officers as last year (with a few new Senate members). How can we feel as if we have adequate representation as students if we have no choice in who's elected? I mean, there are write-in options, but in reality those are just for those people who have nothing better to say in terms of a vote.
But lets put those problems aside for a second and look at an even larger problem with the ballot. So ASUAF ballots have 3 main purposes. They have officer elections, ballot measures, and survey questions. I've already established the officer elections as a complete joke, so lets look at their second purpose. Ballot measures are supposed to be the student voice making a choice for their school on a matter that the student government has deemed to be important for the student body. This election had only one. Just one. And what was this measure you may ask? It was a measure to determine whether there should be 14 or 20 senate seats within ASUAF. Now how does that really affect the issues that plague students here at UAF?
The answer: it doesn't.
Just another reason to show why this election was a joke.... Maybe one day it will be better.
Here's a link to the ASUAF constitution
http://asuaf.org/constitution
And here's the election results
http://asuaf.org/sites/default/files/Unofficial%20Results.pdf
And an editorial in the campus newspaper speaking about the same thing
http://www.uafsunstar.com/archives/13900
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