University needs Stafford more than Student GovernmentGet over it, Forrest. Are you still harping on the fact that Stafford put an end to Tracy Hutcherson’s farce of a reign in Student Government? Are you mad, like your part-time student ex-politician friends, because your own pseudo-political future will have to end when you graduate? Are you mad because you won’t be able to straggle on, hanging around like a bad smell, taking one or two courses per semester, pretending to be leaders of a student populace you belong to for only a few hours a week? I remember Stafford once gave an excellent example of a worst-case scenario: say he audited a one-hour class each semester. That would make Stafford a legitimate part-time student. Should that one class make him, an administrator, eligible to run for student office?

Some day you will have to accept that Student Government is not a real ruling body. It has some power over sorting out student fees, but it will always be subordinate to the faculty. You might not like that arrangement, but if push comes to shove, this University needs Stafford (or someone like him) far more than it will ever need Student Government. Feel free to disagree with the faculty, by all means, and negotiate to a consensus whenever possible. But Student Government needs to know when it’s time to accept the decisions of a superior and cease wasting time on fake politics.

William Alex RonkeSenior, Computer Science and Creative Writing