SA should let the students vote
Claims that there is a severe gap between the Student Association and the rest of the student body are cliche. But at Monday’s meeting, the SA played that same old tune, blocking students from being able to vote on an environmental blanket tax — a tax that more than 80 percent of students supported, according to an SA poll from last year (see story, page 1).
Brown College senator Patrick McAnaney and SA Environmental Committee Chair Lauren Laustsen made the proposal, which would have created a Renewable Energy Committee within the SA to use the money — around $30,000 a year — to fund environmental and sustainability improvements to campus. After a year of unprecedented environmental activism on campus, this proposal would have allowed students to lead the charge for themselves. After all, students had already shown in poll results that they wanted such a program, and the SA should have given them a chance to vote on one. If the plan had problems, then students themselves could have voted it down.
Admittedly, the proposal was a little vague on the specifics. However, McAnaney did assure the SA that Director of Sustainability Richard Johnson was overseeing the plan. And if SA members wanted more details about the plan, they should have asked for them, rather than voting it down without knowing all the facts.
In fact, the entire voting process was marked by SA members’ confusion over the proposal and the election process. If students are going to get elected to these positions, they should at least know how the government works.
However, McAnaney and Laustsen should not view the SA’s rejection of the blanket tax as a permanent setback. They should use the time before the next election to flesh out their current project and plan others for years to come. If McAnaney and Laustsen make the plans concrete enough, then approval for blanket tax funding would be nothing more than a formality, ready to be voted upon by students.
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