Keep an eye on IUSA

Running for office in high school has been an ongoing source of jokes in TV and movies for decades.

Often the elections prove to be little more than school-sanctioned popularity contests because when the candidates do reach higher office, the business they carry out rarely goes outside what’s being served for lunch in the cafeteria.

Unfortunately our University’s student government finds itself in a similar state of affairs.

The IU Student Association has had months — even before school started — to put the ‘you’ in YOUniversity, the name the current IUSA administration ran on.

Besides Culture of Care, which has been IUSA’s signature achievement, inherited from two years ago, the current administration has little else to show for its time in office.

So much of the blame can fall only on the shoulders of its executives, however. The rest of us have been enablers of this erosion of IUSA’s relevance on our campus.
One of the greatest parts and biggest flaws of a democracy is that it hinges on the involvement of its population with its government.

When it comes to our student government, it’s beyond clear most students couldn’t care less.

Rather than being the catalyst for change IUSA has been in decades past, it has become just another organization used to fluff résumés and build personal networks.

There are plenty of areas in which IUSA could be bringing about solutions instead of surveys — traffic congestion on 10th Street, sky-high text book prices, a LifeLine that doesn’t cover drug possession or sexual assault, college affordability or student safety.

Instead, what we have is student leadership concerned more with handing out free T-shirts and participating in meet and greets with administrators than advancing an agenda in the interest of the student body.

IUSA is a large, expensive student organization. Unfortunately it seems unable to hold the major sway an organization charged with representing more than 40,000 students should have.

Instead, student advisory boards, such as the secretive 12-member Board of Aeons that directly advises IU President Michael McRobbie, seem to have more agency in making things happen.

One example of this is the repurposing of Memorial Hall and nearby academic building into residence halls, all at the recommendation of the Board of Aeons.

IUSA isn’t working. Let’s help it, fix it or get rid of it.

Because at the end of the day we’re paying money for what goes on in the Student Activities Tower — whether we’re paying attention or not.

­— edsalas@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Eduardo Salas on Twitter @seibbe.