Student Government Faults Exposed By Insider

The Warrior Blog has posted a extensive critique of the Marquette University Student Government by MUSG Senate veteran Vinnie Bergl. The essay confirms my statements on the many flaws of our university’s governing body. Here are some excerpts.

“My problem that night was not with the people who opposed the nickname legislation or favored the LCD bill per se–ironically, I since learned that my own brother helped to initiate and push the LCD idea. Indeed, there were a few passionate and well-framed arguments for both positions that night. What burned me was the frightening lack of independent thought from the body as a whole.

This was nothing new; in fact, it epitomized the entire year and my entire experience so far on senate.
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We had just spent the three previous meetings (yes, three) filling two committee appointments and electing a president pro temp. Much of this had to do with poor attendance (another embarrassment altogether), but the way we conducted this process was farcical–and incidentally, quite typical. For three meetings, we did our little dance–the nominations, followed by the talking-up of the candidates, complete with its silly flattery, and the requisite splitting of hairs. All the while, we lowered our voices, used official-sounding words, and called each other “Senator ____” so that we could pretend we were conducting something really really really important. The body language of a few senators was priceless. I particularly recall the look of disgust on the face of Jamaul Webster, an off-campus senator who quit one meeting short of vacating his seat. I can’t say I blame him.

Somewhere between installments of “Senator ____ is the greatest because…,” we received a ridiculous demonstration/sales pitch on the LCD screens from Todd Vicker and a rep from the LCD vendor (who was obnoxiously piped in by speaker phone) during the second to last meeting. So basically MUSG had arranged a senate floor presentation with a salesman and an administrator acting as a salesman–I say it as if there’s a difference–on the week before this same senate was supposed to “represent their constituents” in a vote on the issue. Hmmmm…

So what happened? We passed the bill the next week with little opposition and in almost no time at all–less time than a round of debate for a single budget committee appointment, at least. I would imagine that the senate usually rushes to pass such things because it’s something that we can staple our name to, and that, after all, is what we seem to want primarily.
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What galls me is how easily an administrator’s sales pitch can change our thinking.
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Perhaps the worst part of it all is the notion that we do, or for that matter, are even remotely able to speak for our “constituents.” How many senators that night truly understood the perspective of diehard athletics fans within their “constituencies”? If constituents are those with a similar common interest and a like mind to those who represent them, I would say that the only legitimate constituents of most senators are their fellow MUSG members. I hope none truly believe themselves to be the refined, enlightened voice of their colleges or residences, as the idea of constituency would imply.

But I think many do, and I blame this on the gratuitous back-patting from the administration. No matter how complacent or insular we get, we’ll always have our student development people pumping us up as “leaders” doing a “great service.” What a sham. Real cynics would say that we’re only buttered up like that so that we will kindly play along with the administration.

Cynical as I am, I am not quite that cynical–yet. But I think anyone outside MUSG would vomit if they were to attend our recognition reception at the end of the year. If the praise-fest alone couldn’t spill their stomachs, the sappy, silly video montage of the year-that-was in MUSG would have. Lord knows I wouldn’t have gone this year if not for the ritzy catering that our budget buys for the event. (Even out of principle, I couldn’t pass up the exorbitant amounts of free pies and hors d’oeuvres.)
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The feel-good atmosphere that all of this creates kills almost any chance for real thinking to take place. There is such a reluctance to create any productive tension among the senate.
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As the chair of our standing senate committee on academics this past year, I grew more and more aware of this emphasis on attaching our name to something tangible and a reluctance to think deeply or independently about core issues. It makes perfect sense then that we would try to leach credit off both the selection and the abolition of the Gold nickname. It’s so predictable.
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Unfortunately, my nearly two years on MUSG has mostly proven my preconceived assumptions from my pre-senate days. Yes, we are an insular group of cohorts that would much rather do than think and would rather be told how great we are than how much better we could do. We buy into the lie that we are somehow elevated members of the university; we most certainly are, of course, if we choose to put our individual role within a centralized university community over the role of our university within society. In the latter sense, we may in fact come in last. We become as proficient in university-speak as our administrators, and this is partly why they love us so much.
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This may all seem too harsh, but I think it’s time for members of MUSG to be honest with ourselves in the face of critics. If us “insiders” don’t stop acting like insiders, that is all we will ever be. It’s time to let the defenses down, to stop worrying what our friends (that is, our MUSG colleagues) think, and to prove we have minds of our own. And for these reasons, I for one welcome the challenges and harshest criticisms of you or anyone that would like to present them.

Vinnie Bergl

Vinnie, we need more Senators like you. I admire the fact that you have taken the time to ask for real student opinion. We need an MUSG who speaks out for us and is not so caught up in self-praise as you have stated. If things change inside MUSG, we will know who is responsible.

The first step, as I stated before, is to bring some culpability to the Senate by enforcing roll call votes to promote organizational transparency. If we as students know whether our senators are truly representing us by being able to track their votes and activities via the MUSG website we can play a more active roll and student government races will be more than just a popularity contest.

I have faith that as more constructive criticism surfaces MUSG will be able to become a true student voice. If they fall victim to the self-gratification detailed above we still will be in debt to the brave senators such as Vinnie who bucked protocol and made a concerted effort to promote change.

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