Abolish IUSA

With this being the second and final day of IUSA elections, I decided to visit IUSA's current Web site at www.indiana.edu/~iusa/ to see just what Crimson has done for me so that I might know what to expect from next year's leaders.\nFrom the very front page it became apparent that there's something wrong here. There are about two dozen articles available to tell you what IUSA has done for you lately, all of which are links to articles from the IDS.\nWait, doesn't the site also point out that IUSA has appointed a Public Relations director among numerous other positions with very cool titles, that apparently do very little work? Shouldn't the PR director have a few press releases up instead of relying on the Indiana Daily Student? Nope, those are still "coming soon," according to the site.\nYou guys might want to get on that soon, considering you only have a couple more weeks in office.\nAfter all, IUSA has important issues on its plate right now, such as ... um, jacking up the transportation fee! And kind of (but not really) fighting the imminent passage of the athletics fee ... again!\nEvery year, the tickets just want to fight about alcohol laws, which they can't change, so it's no wonder no one with any power bothers to listen to IUSA.\nIt just promotes IU's reputation as a party school, and administrators love that about as much as they love a good dorm porn scandal.\nOf course, if anyone was listening, it's not as if IUSA would have a lot to say. The blind support of the transportation fee has certainly alienated a lot of students who don't care about the option of riding a bus, and the current administration's lackluster opposition of the athletics fee is a far cry from the feelings of most students I know.\nThe four tickets this year all just want more dialogue over the passage of fees, instead of all-out opposition to a fee that pays off a debt no student is responsible for incurring.\nWhere is the ticket that's willing to say, "Screw you! It's not the students' debt, and we refuse to pay it!"?\nIUSA has a yearly budget of about $90,000 and the student body president will receive a $4,500 salary. \nFor what?\nTo not even try to realize any campaign promises?\nOr maybe to spend $60,000 on a corvette as a previous Kirkwood administration did in 2002?\nAt this point, I don't think it would be that drastic to just eliminate the whole organization. Will anyone really miss the yearly political banners in February, or the periodic IDS "updates" that carry about as much weight as the ramblings outside of Kirkwood bars on Friday night?\nI certainly wouldn't.\nIt's not that I don't think students need someone to represent them, it's just that those we elect no longer have anything worthwhile to say, and administrators have stopped listening, for the most part. \nIUSA representatives only seem to care about making appointments for their friends so they can all have something nice to put on their resumes after graduation.\nHeck, a budget of $90,000 could be put to pretty good use, giving a few students full scholarships to IU each year.\nOr since IUSA doesn't seem to have any real objections to the athletics fee, why doesn't it just disband and let its budget be put toward the athletics budget?\nEither seems like a logical choice to me. IUSA does care about the students after all, right?