Every Student Government election season, I ask myself: why do so few students vote? I used to blame them. They were too apathetic, too closed-minded, to care. Now I’m not so sure. Maybe the non-voting 90% are smarter than I thought.
Maybe they’re smart enough to know their vote doesn’t mean much, when SG’s powers are so weak compared to the unelected Chancellor or Board of Supervisors. In going to class, living our lives, we seldom look at the big picture. How is our University run? Could it be different? While the United States is a democracy, many institutions that exert great influence on public life operate under little effective oversight or internal democracy.
Take LSU for example. The Board of Supervisors hires the chancellor, who runs LSU. The Governor selects the board members, who tend to be some of his largest campaign contributors and friends. They frequently act against the wishes of students and their elected representatives. For example, in 1999, the board approved privatizing the bookstore after more than 10,000 students signed petitions against privatization. The board recently approved a huge pay raise for the chancellor after Student Senate opposed the raise. The frequent ineffectiveness of SG to affect University policy breeds the cynicism that keeps people from voting.
The concept of political power intimidates many people. “Power to the people” often is dismissed as a dangerous, radical slogan. But a healthy degree of power is necessary for human dignity and meaningful democracy; indeed, powerlessness can be seen as the root of all injustice. Being powerless often means being taken advantage of. After all, “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” A more balanced distribution of power at LSU can prevent that sort of abuse. I don’t say this to suggest that the chancellor or Supervisors are abusing their power (that’s for you to determine) but rather to say that nobody, however well intentioned, should be entrusted with great power with little accountability.
In Colorado, Michigan, Nebraska and Nevada, voters directly elect their higher education boards. Louisiana voters could elect directly the Board of Regents, LSU’s oversight body. The same could happen for the Board of Supervisors, or perhaps students could elect part of the board. Districts would be based on enrollment. Big schools such as LSU A&M would get their own districts. Smaller schools like LSU-Eunice and LSU-Alexandria would share districts.
You might say these people wouldn’t be qualified to run the school, but who is more qualified than those who live and work here every day? They would also be more accountable for their actions than the Supervisors are now.
Political change in our state is difficult but not impossible. In 1975, Louisiana got a new constitution. In it, students got a seat on the Board of Supervisors. This didn’t occur in a vacuum but as a result of the expansion of democracy throughout America in the 1960’s. In those years, many previously excluded groups entered the mainstream of political life: the poor, African Americans, and young people, among others. Establishment critics condemned this change as a “crisis of democracy” that would make society “ungovernable” and ever since have sought to undermine it. Many university administrations followed this trend by centralizing power and authority in the wake of this “crisis.” (Some universities, to their credit, expanded student democracy in response to student protests. LSU’s record lies somewhere between these two extremes.)
One result of this backlash has been a feeling of apathy and powerlessness. I think the best way to turn this around is to get students, faculty and staff to work together for more democratic universities.
I have no exact blueprint of how greater democracy at LSU might work. My proposals are only suggestions to encourage discussion. Just getting people to talk about this, to believe they have the ability and right to, would be a huge step forward. Never forget, the people of Louisiana own this University, not the Chancellor or Supervisors. How often do we recognize that?
Contact Brian Marks at [email protected]