Editorial: Advice for democracy

Just like Erik Sten’s resignation from the Portland City Council last week, the departures of seven Student Fee Committee members over the course of the last six months here at Portland State is a disservice to those who choose to vote.

But instead of the departure of one man from a committee of five-a man who has proven his worth to the Portland community–we have at PSU the departure of seven people from a committee of eight. You elected six of those people to decide how to spend your money. Now they’re gone.

A group of seven appointed students and the SFC chair will now decide how to allocate millions of dollars of your student fees. Which begs the question: Who is representing you?

In an effort to defend the departures from the SFC, members of student government claim there is not a difference between elected and appointed students because, on this campus of over 25,000 students, only about 2,000 vote in the annual election.

These current and former SFC members are stating that your vote does not matter to them. They are throwing out the notion that the perspectives and interests of the student body, which elected them into office in the first place, carry absolutely no weight at PSU.

It is words like these that insult democracy. But it is the actions of the former SFC members, who left office before even fulfilling the smallest of duties, which are the destroyers of democracy.

Instead of looking ahead and determining whether a yearlong stint on the SFC would be manageable given the commitments and responsibilities, a whole slate of members walked away from their elected positions midterm. They said other opportunities surfaced, the work was too rigorous, and it just wasn’t a good fit. But, really, what these departed members are saying is that student government is not a job or a responsibility–it’s a joke.

And maybe student government is. It is obviously not as important as the Portland City Council, and the SFC in no way requires the workload or commitment of a city council job. But Sten and the SFC members who left the committee can be compared for one reason: democracy. Elections are in place to elect officials. And officials are in place to represent a larger body.

When those elected officials leave office early, democracy breaks down.

In the case of Erik Sten, everything will turn out OK. The man has accomplished much in his time. We’ll have a new election in May, someone will fill his seat, and the city council will continue business as usual. No one can be blamed for Sten’s departure but himself, and in reality there is no harm, and no one to blame.

But the former SFC members accomplished little before they left, mostly because they had little to accomplish. They all left before the real trials and tribulations of the SFC came. Now we have appointees in their spots, deciding where our money will go. Who is to blame? The people who didn’t make clear what the SFC requires.

It seems that the advisers during the student government elections last year must not have made it clear that members of the SFC, which allocates $12 million in student fees, must be in it for the long haul. No one elected to student government should be surprised about the position’s workload or expected commitments.

During this coming elections season, the advisers to ASPSU must make it clear to students considering candidacy what their jobs might entail. Elected student government members must closely consider their desire to run for office before asking students to vote for them. If this situation reoccurs next year, it will prove that a vote at PSU means nothing. And every discarded vote, whether the vote is cast for the PSU student government or for the Portland City Council, is one further gash in the foundation of democracy.