I know it probably seems like I’m harping about this, because, after all, it’s just a student council it doesn’t seem terribly important, right?
But with almost a million dollars of student money coming in every year, its important that you take the few opportunities you have to ensure that the people who are spending that money are ones that students feel they can trust. I’ve personally seen too many reports of student councils that have become dysfunctional, or worse, corrupt, simply because they do seem so small and unimportant to most people that nobody pays attention.
And I’ll admit, I have a vested interest in this because while AUSU has committed to giving The Voice Magazine autonomy (and funding) to report on issues that matter to students in any way that I and the voice writers feel is appropriate, the Voice Magazine does not have true independence, and it could disappear with any new AUSU council.
With a good council elected, the odds of that happening are very thin. But if a bad set is elected, student magazines that report on student councils quickly find themselves running into trouble. If not fully independent, they can just be cancelled. Even those that are fully independent and funded directly by students can find it difficult to be able to report on a bad council, as they’ll find doors closed and meeting and decisions increasingly being made in private.
Of course, this might seem like I’m concerned that there’s problems with some of the candidates who are currently running. To be clear, I’m not. From what I’ve seen, I’m fairly certain the candidates who are running for acclamation are a good group, but it’s not my decision—it’s yours.
To that end, if you haven’t already voted and haven’t looked at our candidate interview, now would be a great time to check it out. We received responses from eight of the ten candidates to our interview questions, so you have a chance to look at them and what they think is important for the future of AUSU.
Also this issue, we’re featuring an interview with a student who may be like a lot of you in that she’s self-funding her way through an expensive Bachelor’s degree, and then is looking toward an even more expensive Master’s degree. Find out what keeps her going through all of this and if you’ve ever wondered what a student sky-diving looks like, well, we’ve got photographic evidence in this week’s Minds We Meet.
Also this week is the AUSU Council Meeting for March. If you’re interested in seeing what goes on “behind the scenes”, there’s still time for you to sign up, and we get you up to speed with what’s been going on in our Council Connection reporting on the meeting back in February.
Plus, of course, we’ve got recipes, reviews, news, events, scholarships, and more, including a contribution by a brand new writer who not only brings news of a poetry contest you can still enter, but tells us about her experiences with it in the past. Both informative and fun, it’s a great way to enjoy the read!
