Staff Box by Geoff Mulvilhill

Senate incompetence enchanced by advertising campaigns, threats

There's a political race going on now that could impact your life, more difference in your life, than the current Clinton-Dole-Perot race.

But it probably won't. The election that finds students willing to sit on Oberlin's Student Senate is a joke - or at least that's what those in charge of publicizing the election seem to be trying to make it.

In fact, the mudslinging of national political races would be a step up from the childish and occasionally demeaning promotions for the Student Senate race.

Posters around campus have attempted wit. But they've failed.

One poster contains an image of a frightening, grimacing police officer saying, "Vote for Senate or I'll make you WISH you did."

Another has a picture of two puppies under a caption that claims the Senate will kill the said canines if you don't vote in the election.

Yet another - the worst of all - claims voting in the election is an activist move comparable to the anti-war student activism of the 1960s and the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Beijing, China's Tienenmen Square.

There are not widespread human rights violations going on at Oberlin and a such a comparision belittles legitimate battles for rights.

The Senate is highly unlikely to execute any puppies.

Or be taken seriously.

Though they haven't figured out how to use it over the three years I've been around, Student Senators could have some power.

Senate is the body that appoints students to powerful faculty committees. It's the body that could have the organization to influence College policy.

And its public showcases are nothing but infantile attempts at wit. The Senate is offering us no reason to take it seriously or vote in its election.

As the College embarks on a long-term planning process, the Senate could lead its student constituents into that discussion.

As semi-enlightened Oberlin students, we don't need unfunny jokes to be encouraged to be active citizens. We need some sort of mental stimuli. We need issues and ideas.

And it's not like there aren't issues and ideas floating around waiting to be grabbed.

Oberlin students and especially the Senate could be pondering a new or different student union. They could be concerned about the massive restructuring of the Department of Residential Life and Services.

They could be considering the role of athletics on campus or how well the sexual offense policy works. We could be debating Ohio-PIRG's funding mechanism. We could be evaulating the college-town relationship.

Instead, the Senate is advertising itself with posters with less chutzpah and fewer actual ideas than those for most off-campus parties.

My advice: Undermine what the senate is saying about itself. Vote in the election despite the stupidity some members of the body have shown. But find candidates who are willing to work on things that matter, rather than on posters threatening puppies.