Law, though flawed, must be upheld

Sometimes, a dumb law is passed. Sometimes, no one can fathom why it was passed, and what its intention was, but a law is a law. Unless it is changed through the proper legislative channels, it can't be ignored because of its idiotic nature -- a lesson the student government leaders at Eigenmann Hall desperately need to learn.\nOn Nov. 28, a referendum was offered to the students living in the residence halls asking if the Eigenmann Residents Association should join the Residence Halls Association. Only 40 Eigenmann residents voted, and only 15 of those approved the merger. \nBut a quirk in Eigenmann's constitution means the resolution still passed. Under Article VIII, Section 1 of the ERA constitution: "Upon approval of 20 percent of the residents voting, the amendment shall become part of this Constitution." \nIt's not a provision particularly rooted in common sense. Why on Earth would anyone want a bill to pass if 80 percent of the voters went against it? Under that logic, Ross Perot would have been elected to the U.S. presidency in 1992, succeeding President Michael Dukakis. \nWhat Eigenmann's RHA leaders said after the vote, of course, is the wording was wrong. ERA President Dietrich Willke, a senior, said "common sense" dictated the constitution was in error.\n"The sentence doesn't really make sense, if you're looking at a democratic way of voting," Willke said.\nOf course it doesn't make sense. But it's still the law. \nIt doesn't seem there's a remarkable amount of support for this change to RHA. A whopping 40 people out of 1,000 cast a ballot (a remarkable 4 percent turnout). Many residents said ERA did not publicize the vote. In a Feb. 21, 2000 IDS article, Willke himself said the support wasn't there. It doesn't seem anyone at Eigenmann was too eager to jump into the bigger RHA pool.\nBut it doesn't matter. The constitution says what it says, and now they're stuck with it.\nSo it's an error. So it made it into the constitution by some miraculous accident. So no one bothered to simply proofread the constitution before putting up to a vote. \nTough luck.\nNo one in their right mind would let a bill become law if only 20 percent of any voting body approved it. It doesn't make sense. But it's still the law in Eigenmann, and now they have to live with their own mistake.