“University politics are so vicious,” Henry Kissinger once quipped, “precisely because the stakes are so small.” If that’s the case, stakes here must have reached a completely new level of tiny.
With students back from Spring Break, campus politicians finally get to test whatever strategies they’ve cooked up in the mad dash to March 27. The student body president’s race has already delivered its share of fireworks and promises more to come — with the Will Quick and Will Langley campaigns trading accusations, Cody Williams giving new meaning to phrases like “questionable exercise of authority” and even so-called “minor” candidates like Jeremy Georghiou breaking out with publicity earned the old-fashioned way: The proverbial “whiskey and women” at a recent campaign keg party.
But the new level of political sophistication going on behind the scenes goes beyond the SBP race. Campus Greeks have fielded an armada of candidates, including five of the seven campus-wide offices on the ballot. Sigma Chi in particular may prove to be the “Skull and Bones” of NCSU with the current front-runners in both the SBP and Student Senate president races, and more candidates overall than any other fraternity. It would seem claims of anti-Greek hostility are a bit exaggerated since these folks presumably wouldn’t put their names and personal credibility on the line if they didn’t think they could win.
In terms of vitality, though, Greek Life may face stiff competition from a newly re-energized black community. With members of the campus NAACP, the African-American Student Advisory Council and the Society for African-American Culture running for almost every office — including polished contenders in the Senate president and chief justice races — the stars may be aligning for a repeat of past success in putting African-American leadership in Student Government.
Individual Senate seats have also turned into founts of political “strategery.” While some colleges have a shamefully low number of contestants crying out for changes in apportionment (the Graduate School as an example), others like CHASS and Management have a veritable glut of candidates all elbowing for a chance to outdo their competitors. At least one umbrella group calling itself the WolfPAC has also stepped into the mix, parsing old election returns and providing new campaign tools to its nominees in the traditionally sedentary Senate races.
No discussion of the professional political antics underway would be complete without a mention of The Pirate Captain’s impeachment. I wrote in October efforts were afoot to evict Student Body President Whil Piavis for dereliction of duty. I’ll let the merits (or lack thereof) be debated elsewhere, but the public outcry on both sides has been as vitriolic as it is humorous.
Let’s be honest with each other, no one is going to accuse the Senate of greatness. It’s no different from the U.S. Congress writ small (really, really, really small). Even if it manages to rack up accomplishments like the “Chained by Tuition” campaign, it will always be overshadowed by the silly procedural hijinks that suck up everyone’s time and energy. Always. So if you’re going to impeach the president, stop trying to decipher why no one likes you and just defend the merits of your argument.
But let’s also be fair — no one is going to accuse our SBP of greatness either. When your defenders on The Wolf Web point out they voted for you to “make a mockery of Student Government,” and your defenders in the media preface their comments with, “He’s not the best, but …” that’s what political folks call “damning with faint praise.” Besides, there’s nothing wrong at all with mediocrity. This is the student body presidency we’re talking about. Who remembers the SBP or what he or she did more than a few years down the road anyway? Even Jim Hunt, the N.C. governor against whom future governors will be measured for years to come, never really did anything when he held the position. So stop having your defenders tout a litany of nonexistent achievements and instead accept you will be indistinguishable from your predecessors. Your opposition will fall apart on their own, and you can rest knowing you too could become North Carolina’s future governor.
It’s going to be an interesting two weeks.
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