Letters & Opinion
What's the point: Demoralizing democracy
The Pointer
kleb524@uwsp.edu
With Valentine’s Day just days away, concerned parties are gearing up for the commercial holiday and all of its cutesy-wootsy creations. On the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point campus, Cupid showed up more than a week early this year. Though you could not visibly see the love floating through the halls, it certainly was hovering around The Legacy Room on Thursday, Feb. 5 when Kirk Cychosz was voted in as the Student Government Association’s vice president.
If you read the meeting minutes posted on the SGA Web site or the article written by Avra Juhnke in the news section of “The Pointer,” you would know that Cychosz was voted in after having to take three separate votes.
As I sat at the senate meeting, I realized that Cupid must have struck Senator Sam Glenzer, causing a sudden change of heart. When the motion was initially made to approve the vice presidential appointee, Glenzer stated in discussion his reasoning for not voting to approve Cychosz. He claimed that he was “stubborn” on the issue and was “going to stick with that.” In listening to his point, he sounded convincing. However, after Cychosz’s appointment was defeated by one vote, it was Glenzer who made the motion for a revote.
Glenzer claimed he did not want to approve the nomination of Cychosz as vice president, but changed his mind when the vote failed; he seemed to only want a revote for the sake of filling the position.
This is where I have to ask, what is the point of voting? There are senators who work hard at their job and try to do the best they can. But, what is the point of voting three times on the same appointment if in the end you will approve the man anyway?
Accept the vote for what it is; sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. But it must be indicated in a single, fair vote, not a vote that continues until it finally passes.
I am not implying that Cychosz will be an ineffective vice president. I am asking that if our senators are going to make decisions that will affect the rest of the student body, they vote for what is best, not what will take the least amount of effort to resolve. Author J.K. Rowling wrote it best in her novel, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”: “There will be a time when we must choose between what is right and what easy.”
I encourage my fellow students to let their senators know how they feel they want to be represented. Come to senate meetings on Thursdays at 6 p.m. in The Legacy Room. Speak your mind!
