Representation should be accurate

OK. The power plays of Purdue Student Government are unbelievable! Referendum voted in! Referendum rescinded! Rescindment repealed by court! This is too much.

Here's what I, a student begging to be heard, think:

First, I want to know where the debate for all this was. Did I miss it? Was there a big forum that I just didn't hear about? Or did the Internal Review Committee and the PSG Executive Tyranny push the referendum down the students' throats before they had a chance to understand what it is they were voting for? I would have jumped at the opportunity to go to a public gathering on this. Maybe with an open question and answer session with Vaca, Mondi, the committee, Ridenour, Slaughter, etc. What a novel way to truly hear what the student body has to say, rather than giving them two choices: extreme change or nothing.

Second, the committee proposal is just not good. The representation they call for (two senators for every school, two for graduate students, two for the underrepresented community, and two for non-degree and whoever's left) is not even close to the make-up of the student body. The School of Veterinary Medicine had a fall enrollment of 124. All of the Schools of Engineering had 6,233. Each school would have two representatives! Tell me that's not lopsided and I'll tell you that fences around the fountains would really beautify our campus. I'm not totally against the idea of representation by schools. However, it needs to be in proportion.

This is the kind of thing that would've been discussed if there had been a forum like the one I suggested earlier. I would've been there in a heartbeat.

Anthony T. Harris

Freshman, Schools of Engineering

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