Letter to the editor

1/30/13 6:00pm

To the editor,

First, we are all Rice students, but we have not been randomly selected to attend the same university. We all went through a rigorous application process, and we are all of above-average intelligence. Also, we were somehow paired with the people we live with.

Second, I would rather you think about the organizational power of your student self-governance as if it were the United States Senate. Think of the colleges as individual states and the Student Association as the U.S. Senate. The college presidents are akin to representative Senators, and the SA president becomes the United States vice president in this metaphor. The system at Rice closely resembles the current U.S. government - whether or not that is failing is another discussion.

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College presidents do have the strongest influence over their constituencies, but they are also their constituents' strongest voices. They are elected to run the colleges, but they are also elected to be the voice of the people and represent the colleges' interests to the student body as a whole. We do elect a board of SA officers, but we still need to make sure our own interests are represented.

Yes, we are all Rice students, but we all live in different colleges. There are things that connect us as a university, but there are key differences between us as colleges. We have completely different interests and concerns, traditions and goals. Someone elected based on a Thresher blurb and a few posters - or, worse, based on the lack of an opponent - does not necessarily understand every college's problems and needs.

You say the root of the problem is the fact that we as a student body trust our college presidents more than our campuswide government. Maybe there is a mistrust of the SA, but that is the SA's own fault. Somehow, college presidents have gained our trust; the SA should try to do the same. Why should college presidents be chastised for doing their jobs well?

College presidents are transparent and reachable. They live among us, eat among us and know the problems that plague us. Also, we know what they are doing. The students on the SA's executive board are just names and vague faces. The SA has not done anything to earn our trust. In fact, it has done quite the opposite. How can a blanket tax organization be in charge of policing all the other blanket tax organizations? How can we give the SA more power while it abuses the power it already has? Maybe the SA should try to work better with college presidents, instead of asking for more power. Maybe then we will have shirts with the beautiful Rice "R" and participate in campuswide events. If these things are not happening now, and the SA already cannot get the trust of the students, more power will not save it.

Anastasia Bolshakov

Duncan College sophomore

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