Residential college governments hold too much power on campus

By Shaan Patel     1/16/13 6:00pm

 

First, I would like you to remember that we are all Rice students who have been randomly selected to live among people who have been randomly assigned to live together. 

Second, I want you to think about the organizational power of our student self-governance as if it were the United States government. Think about the colleges as individual states and the Student Association as the federal government. The college presidents translate into governors, the SA president into the president of the United States and so on. I believe the system we have developed at Rice more closely resembles the failed Articles of Confederation than the U.S. Constitution. 

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As with the governors under the Articles, the students at Rice with the strongest influence and sway are the college presidents. They are consulted on every major decision, are notified on university-wide changes, are able to affect daily decisions at the colleges and act as representatives of the student body. 

However, college presidents are technically elected to run our colleges, not our university. State governors are not responsible for national security, and I do not believe the college presidents should be determining university-wide policy. As students, we elect a board, the SA officers, to represent us in university-wide decisions. Utilizing the college governments to make these decisions acts as a procedural injustice. 

Remember again that we are all Rice students. With this in mind, I cannot help but wonder why Baker College's interests should be different than those of Jones College, or of McMurtry College or of any other college. One has to wonder why our colleges should represent us in any substantial way at all because each is but a microcosm of the whole. 

For example, Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson recently created a Alcohol Policy and Drinking Task Force made up of one representative from each college. It is comprised of one-third chief justices, one-third college masters and one-third college presidents. What I do not comprehend is the requirement of a representative from each college. What makes us all so different that we require a representative from each random group of 300 people? Also, why is the committee not made solely of SA officers as they are the only ones truly elected to represent us on a university-wide level? This committee should represent a diversity of drinking and partying levels to truly represent the students and offer a diversity of opinions. 

The root of this problem is that we as students trust our college governments more than our student association government. Due to this mistrust, most decisions are left to the colleges, such as what is done during Orientation Week, when quiet hours are, who gets kicked off campus and how we define a party. However, why are these not standardized across all students? Again, we are all Rice students. Changing these things would not be belittling the power of the colleges, but empowering the university to recognize what brings us together above superficially setting us apart and may allow for more coherency and better communication. 

Furthermore, instead of falling into a trend of entrenched cognition, Rice students must beg the question "why" more often and begin to make common sense of how we govern ourselves. Elect people for positions that are meaningful, clear and defined. If we do not empower the SA to govern, then the SA will never govern. Currently, there appears to be a system in which the SA recommends changes and the colleges decide whether or not to follow them. For example, there was a motion for colleges to begin putting "Rice University" on every piece of memorabilia they make. However, the resolution was more of a practices suggestion and carried no official weight. Another project aimed to start a calendar of Rice events, which is a necessary and beneficial tool for all students; however, the SA handed over its responsibility and content management to the college secretaries. The SA has shown competence and a readiness to handle more in this Centennial year. It should be able to mandate certain things to the colleges and supersede unnecessary overlaps in policy from college to college. The colleges work beautifully as tools of personal mentorship, friendship, social events and friendly competition but at times can degrade university-wide efforts. 

To remedy this, we need to empower not just the SA, but also university-wide student groups. Empower the Resident Health Advisors, Rice Program Council and every student who wants to do something substantial on this campus. Maybe with these changes we, as students, will begin to have more shirts that sport the beautiful Rice "R." Maybe we will show more willingness to take part in campus-wide initiatives and take advantage of how small it really is. Finally, maybe we will recognize more and more that in the end, we are all Rice students. 

Shaan Patel is a McMurtry College junior. 

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