There are two weeks out of the academic year that make or break every member of LSU’s Student Government: election season. Every spring, LSU students can vote for their next president, vice president and members of the Senate and Judicial branches.
Yet some students who want to make a change never come close to the Capitol Chamber.
Though all its information is open to the public, LSU’s Student Government is an enigma to a large portion of the student body. With an average of 200 votes per Senate candidate in last spring’s election, the lackluster participation would indicate most students are uninterested. Whether the disinterest arises from a lack of diverse representation or inadequate communication is up for debate.
SG is well aware of these issues, according to Trey Schwartzenburg, the Senate Speaker pro tempore.
“As a whole, Student Government has been doing substantially bigger things in certain areas, but not communications,” Schwartzenburg said. “I don’t know if students are seeing it. That’s one department I haven’t seen drastic improvement in.”
In 2012, only one in four students voted in Student Government elections at LSU, the lowest voter turnout in the SEC. Few students know what goes on in SG, but there’s no simple explanation.
It’s unclear whether the burden of political communication falls on students or their elected representation. Either way, political involvement at LSU is lacking compared to other SEC schools. Understanding how most students typically get involved in SG may shed light on why the student body does not.
How it works
There are three branches of SG: legislative, executive and judicial. Senators, led by the Speaker Pro Tempore, draft bills on behalf of student concerns, with multiple senators endorsing each bill. Wednesday Senate meetings include debates about legislation and proposals, such as whether a smoking ban on campus will be enforced or whether gay faculty engaged in civil unions can receive benefits. The executive branch, headed by the president and vice president, houses different councils that meet weekly to address specific issues. The chief justice governs the judicial branch, which serves as the judicial review for cases brought up concerning SG.
Elections are held twice a year, with each legislative and College Council candidate running for a half seat (one semester) and others running for a full seat (two semesters). For the Judicial Branch, a half seat is two semesters, and a full seat is four semesters. A president and vice president are elected every spring in the more popularized election. This is when most students meet hopeful candidates as they receive push cards in Free Speech Alley. The push cards list the members of the ticket or group of candidates who run under a unified identity and platform. Rather than individual candidates, it’s the ticket name that is promoted, a tactic that leaves independent candidates at a disadvantage.
99 PROBLEMS
Alexander DeBlieux, chair of Student Life, Diversity and Community Outreach, welcomes the idea of students outside SG becoming involved.
“Honestly, I think that if you educate yourself, you’re more than capable of holding office,” he said. “It’s great to have fresh faces.”
Because of an inability to reach a sufficient number of voters, victorious independent candidates are an anomaly. Then-freshman David Scotton overcame these odds, winning as an independent Senate candidate during the fall 2012 semester. Scotton was an active member of Senate, proposing and sponsoring several bills. When he recognized issues with communication, he set out to bridge this gap with transparency videos. His ideas weren’t accepted, so at the end of the term, he made a video documenting his experience in SG.
“It needed to be exposed for what was happening,” he said. “Students loved it. It was real. Student Government obviously did not.”
Scotton was told that communication was not his role in SG, while others commended him for his initiative. He served out the fall semester, resigning in November to focus on other extracurricular activities.
Scotton spoke candidly about the ticket system.
“A big part of it is because of cliqueness in SG,” he said. “It becomes just a select few who represent a select few. There’s not widespread reach to students. Because of the way elections are done [with tickets,] there’s no thought of who the person is or of their ideas. That’s the main problem. If students are engaged with a candidate whose ideas are represented, they’re connected.”
DeBlieux said he sees this potential for connection with students, citing it as one of the biggest challenges SG faces. Through his leadership role, DeBlieux has a plan to change that. He wants to contact and meet with nearly 400 student organizations on campus to discuss how SG can best be of service. DeBlieux even proposes tailoring messages and presentations to each organization.
“It’s a big undertaking,” he said, “but that’s what Student Government is here for.”
However, according to T. Graham Howell, who lost last year’s presidential election amidst controversy, there would be no need for this meeting with 400 student organizations if the current administration simply followed Student Government’s bylaws.
Currently, the student government Constitution calls for one meeting per semester of the president’s cabinet, which includes representation from student organizations, student media and other interest groups. The cabinet was designed to command input from all around campus, Howell said.
“The President’s cabinet hasn’t met in two and a half years,” Howell said. “This is my biggest issue with Student Government. They’re trying to get rid of the President’s cabinet.”
Howell said that instances like these are not isolated. If time goes by, and rules written in the Constitution or bylaws are now follows, the powers that be try to simply strike the law.
INVOLVEMENT
Some students don’t wait to be given information. Some feel compelled to seek out information online or at Senate meetings. Schwartzenburg said Helen Frink, University College Center for Freshman Year senator, attended Student Government meetings for a semester before she was elected to learn about the process. Frink, now an active senator, recently sponsored a bill for water bottle refill stations in the Student Union. Schwartzenburg also recalled a student filing a Senate application for a vacancy from seeing it on the SG website alone.
In spring elections, heading each ticket is a presidential pair that largely represents the whole ticket. Despite the assertions that each presidential ticket differs, their platforms and candidates share demographic qualities. The ticket typically consists of a male presidential candidate and a female vice-presidential candidate. Usually, one of them is Greek to secure the “Greek vote.”
This year, both running teams include a male presidential candidate and a female vice presidential candidate.
DeBlieux said the majority of voters are Greek females and freshmen.
“It’s somewhat of a formula, but you have to be very careful,” he explained. There’s the possibility of splitting the Greek vote, which can weigh heavy on the election outcome.
Tickets that challenge the traditional structure of the presidential ticket have run in the past, but each election yields a pair demographically similar to the incumbent. LSU hasn’t seen a female President in years, and the first and last African-American president was elected in 1972.
Caucuses, or groups of elected officials representing a political interest, have made an effort to incorporate diversity, but Schwartzenburg said the system is ineffective.
“In my opinion, the caucus system has failed Student Government,” Schwartzenburg said.
Currently, there are three caucuses: the Greek Caucus, the First Year Caucus and the Black Caucus, but recently there has been a movement to abolish the caucuses and change them to delegations. The first two seldom meet, and there is currently one member in the Black Caucus. A movement to abolish caucuses altogether is up for a vote this spring.
Instead, Schwartzenburg and other members of SG have outlined a delegation system to represent student groups. A member of SG would represent each special interest, such as a Spectrum delegate on behalf of LGBT interests. The delegation system could serve academic interests that aren’t covered by other colleges, such as the LSU Honors College. A group would simply need to apply to be assigned an SG delegate.
Ultimately, Scotton feels the responsibility of incorporating diversity does not fall on SG.
“That’s a total lack of motivation on students,” he said. “It’s not Student Government’s fault. It’s easy to be in Student Government, and it’s not Student Government’s role to be diverse.”
This year’s election includes a presidential ticket with no SG ties, an anomaly in the normal pattern of student government at LSU.
LOUD & CLEAR
Thousands of voices go unheard, but SG insists they try to listen. Increased outreach has been an initiative of SG during the Woodard/Parks administration. Both Schwartzenburg and DeBlieux praised President John Woodard for developing a strong relationship with University administration on the LSU Board of Supervisors.
“The amount of respect students have earned from the administration is unbelievable,” DeBlieux said.
Though he criticized past outreach tactics, Scotton says that this year, they’re doing a good job.
The increased outreach may yield different results this election. Scwartzenburg noted a record number of people who’ve filed for election, meaning more students are interested in getting involved. Rather than push a particular message, sharing what accomplishments could be enough to spur student involvement.
“We would hope that people see what we do, like what we do and want to get involved with Student Government,” he said.
Ideally, Student Government is meant to represent and serve students, a philosophy Schwartzenburg and DeBlieux endorse. The issue is with the follow-through.
“Every person [in SG] needs to have one thing in mind: Making the life of every student that much easier, better, safer,” he said.
But that can be hard to believe, especially with some voices, including Howell’s, calling for impeachment.
“If you’ve got a Vice President getting more money than they should and not telling anyone about it, and you’ve got a President who’s not getting his cabinet together and not looking for input from people…if you’ve got a problem then fix it,” Howell said. “People aren’t following the rules.”