Ted Lee on BYUSA

Considering it's length and some good insights, I decided to post this reply as its own post. Ted Lee says:

My biggest problem with the BYUSA candidates is how it feels they are lying to you through their teeth (though, this is standard fare for most political campaigns).

I often hear the argument from aforementioned campaigners that if we do not vote, we lose the chance to choose a representative for us on campus. I have even heard candidates tell me that from time to time. Yet they fully understand that they are not that liason between the administration and the student body on important student issues, merely a member of (in my eyes) an overexagerated ward activities committee.

When you press them on serious issues, such as how the new BYU approved housing policy restricting it to a two mile radius around campus is going to affect the already dishonest housing market here in Provo (and cause an economic bubble), they back down and say, "We are a service organization. We don't deal with that kind of stuff."

So which is it? Are you a serious representative or just an elected activities planner? Don't say you're something when you're not. The buzz word this year, I hear, is accountability. Too many people, they tell me, don't know what BYUSA is and thus the disillusionment.

I would propose a counter argument. Instead of shunting the accountability to us students, why not take accountability to yourselves, as candidates, who falsify what you really do and promise ridiculous things in order to get voted into a position that you essentially plan to use to pad your resume?

There have been many grumblings among various circles I associate with about how BYU is treating their students, from parking to housing to departments to book prices and so forth. They feel that theirs is a role of reactive rather than proactive. BYU comes out with a new policy without consulting many students. The students then are forced to adjust to policies which they have had no say or representation in. Do not tell me that these policies are inspired. There is a difference between prophetic edicts in interpreting doctrine and providing direction and spiritual counsel for the church and the decisions dealing with the earthly. Remember that the prophet Joseph Smith started an anti-bank - and it failed. We are not insulated against bad judgement calls or unexpected results from decisions when we leave the realm of the spiritual.

Students don't care if we have doughnuts before devotionals. That's not something that really matters to them. We come to this great university to learn and, as the phrase goes, "Go forth and serve" and be a light unto those around us. How can we learn to become examples, when there is little chance to do so? How can we learn to use the proper channels of democracy to affect the world around us when we live in a campus that treats us as children that cannot govern themselves? How is it that BYU can say they prepare people not only so that they can get a job but to be productive citizens when we ourselves do not have the proper ability to voice our opinion, whether in the newspaper or in student organizations?

BYU could afford to give some transparency and self-goverance, or at least a voice, to the student body. It is a win-win situation. Not only do they provide students with a legitimate channel to voice concerns, but they provide opportunities for students to learn first hand how government can be utilized effectively in bringing about benificial change, as well as the dangers of neglecting community politics or studying issues in choosing good candidates. Students, it seems, are becoming frustrated with the fact that they do deal with a non-government that props itself as a government. Our university paper is nothing more than a glorified ward newsletter, not the public forum of public opinion journalism is taught as here in the university. A student government, even a limited one, would help students feel they have some say and control as to the various policies BYU conjurs up that affect our immediate lives. Instead, it seems BYU doesn't really care about us students, and more on projecting a favorable image to the world, gaining more honors, rankings and accolades. And why not? In a pragmatic stance, there's so many clamouring to get in here, what's the loss of a disgruntled student who decides to pursue his education elsewhere?

But I digress.