I’ve always found student government to be a fascinating part of life at Arizona State University, but there’s a reason why you’ll never see my name attached to any coverage of Undergraduate Student Government Downtown.
You see, I’ve been there, I’ve done that, and because I participated so heavily with USGD my first year at school, I’ve always recused myself from student government reporting.
But when Corina Tapscott announced that she was running unopposed for USGD president, I was asked by the rest of the Downtown Devil staff to use my experience to provide some perspective.
Let me start with a primer on what USGD does. Student government has three major functions: it allocates and approves funding requests, lobbies the university on behalf of students and helps facilitate coordination between student organizations.
Outside of the large chunk of money that USGD is responsible for, student government has very little in the way of actual power. I doubt most students realize that USGD exists, let alone noticed a change when Joseph Grossman graduated and the Frank Smith administration took over.
The organization can only effect change to the extent that it can galvanize its members and the broader student body to protest policies and pressure the university. To do that, USGD needs to be passionate and committed from top to bottom.
Within student government, you have a fairly average mix of students. A few are in it for a relatively easy paycheck. Some are there because their friends joined. But I would say that most, at least originally, joined USGD because they wanted to get involved on campus, make friends and create change. When they realize that the paycheck isn’t as great as they thought, that there are more visible ways of getting involved or that they don’t have quite as much power as they would like, students often move on.
Because of that, USGD is one giant revolving door. You have students who enter excited and many who leave somewhat jaded. Those who stick around are the ones you want. They’re the ones who are, in my opinion, truly committed to the organization’s purpose. Every year, the president spends the first semester filling the Senate, training staff and scrambling to put together a functional student government just in time to see most of that work crumble.
The yearly campaign only worsens this problem of transient personnel. Suddenly you have a student government forced to choose sides and make promises. I know my ability to be an effective senator was impeded during my campaign against Smith. Thankfully, we’ve since reconciled and I consider Smith a friend, but I know that the campaign spawned a certain amount of bad blood between our camps for a time.
That is why it doesn’t surprise me that Tapscott’s ticket has no opposition. In fact, it’s almost a little reassuring. Despite my belief in the democratic process and my hope that more people would want to participate in USGD, I can’t help but feel that a student government unburdened by the petty drama of a campaign is one that can hit the ground running.
From what I’ve gathered, Tapscott’s campaign sees the same opportunity in running unopposed that I do. If they were running for a paycheck, they could have easily not fronted a campaign at all and just voted themselves into office.
Instead, they’re tabling on Taylor Mall and talking to students. They’re investing in quality advertising materials such as business cards and stickers. Tapscott told me she’s already working to recruit new senators (to address the fact that only two senators are running this year), and her running mate, Ryan Boyd, said they want to create more awareness of USGD’s existence.
If Tapscott can create the kind of visible, involved and well-trained student government that this campus deserves, one that can do more than just stamp funding requests, then her lack of an opponent should not be a problem.
USGD has always needed stability and passion more than a competition that would only drive wedges between people who, at the end of the day, just want to do the right thing.
Contact the author at travis.arbon@asu.edu.
