+
THE UNIVERSITY ONLY & ANSAR
THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 2014
PAGE 4A
+
Watching people pack on to the red 43 bus makes me laugh in a devious uncontrollable manner.
TEXT FREE FOR ALL
After the UDK prank, it's concerning how many people lack common sense. Let alone observational skills
Text your FFA submissions to (785)289-8351 or at kansan.com
Sorry frat guys, this isn't salmon shorts above the knees weather. It never is.
Preston Bukaty, I don't know who you are, but your Cosmos article made me get a crush on you.
Apathetic Party: we wont bother you AND you don't have to vote.
Win-win!
Just earned so much respect for the UDK for having the fake crossword QR code link to Beyonce's "Drunk in Love" video.
I clearly missed the announcement that Anscfhutz is now a place to do karaka and interpretive dance.
Rain, rain, you can stay. As long as you chase political chalk away.
the people tabling literally are not allowed to talk to you directly until April 9-10. So feel free to walk by, just don't talk to them first.
Realizing you skipped a class without meaning to...
So they haven't been letting second graders into the Hawk? Coulda foiled me.
I'm 95 percent sure that my ASL teacher doesn't know my name and thinks I'm Canadian.
today I learned we have a baseball team and it's actually pretty good.
YES RAIN! Goodbye chalk, goodbye tablers. I might actually be okay with two weeks straight of rain if it occurred during student elections.
I've come to the conclusion that ResNet is just one long, drawn out April Fools joke...but no one is laughing.
Spent the entirety of biology figuring out which Disney princess I would be. Most productive bio class ever.
If you are right handed and you take one of the only left handed desks in the room, I am judging you and plotting your demise. Sincerely, Anonymous Lefty
Remember, it's not what's on the outnet that counts, it's what's on the internet.
If I asked you to explain evolution, could you?
Oh. how I've missed cigar season.
Coalitions cause KU more harm than good
CON
Our country's practice of political parties has been more negative than positive. We can see this in University of Kansas' own
student government for which every year, coalitions are formed to battle over Student Senate. While I agree that political parties and coalitions are a practical necessity. I disagree with the way they are practiced.
Student coalitions—as they are practiced today—cause unnecessary divisions. It's very common for a coalition to have the same ideas on how to better our University or to run on similar platforms. The main difference seems to be the words each coalition uses. Students get caught up over their loyalties rather than the ideas they're supposedly standing for.
If students not working with a coalition are aware of similarities, students who are a part of these coalitions certainly are aware, as well. However, each coalition is pitted against one another and ignoring this, focusing more on attracting students to vote for them, rather than standing for some election-worthy vision. Perhaps each coalition begins with great ideas for the University, but this seems to fade during elections.
Rather than standing upon the political positions that make each unique, they advertise platforms and initiatives that would increase their popularity among students. This results in elections mutating into an ugly war between political parties over moot issues. It reminds me of high school when students running for senate would run on ridiculous platforms such as making every
Friday "Hat Day." Where is the vision in that?
To be sure, this isn't about the narrowness of single-issue voting. It's about single-sparkly-shiny-thing voting. At the end of the day, it leaves politically-
conscious students wondering why it really matters to vote for one coalition over another. As for those coalitions that do have great ideas, they take a backseat to campaigns driven by who can come up with the most attractive platforms.
Another aspect to this is how student elections end with the winner taking it all. No matter how many students vote for the second or third coalition on the ballot, their voices are not heard. Our party system would work a lot more democratically if more than one coalition could win seats, creating a true multi-party system where you might have majority and minority leaders.
Over the years, it has been very easy for me to lose faith in coalitions. Coming short of calling them popularity contests, they simply lose sight of their unique political message through the process of fighting to become that winner who takes all. While I cannot think of any other means other than forming coalitions for students to get directly involved in student politics, I do think the way they are run can be far more purposeful and sincere. Coalitions would function in a way that actually promotes the purpose of a party system: to present sets of ideologies and opinions for students to choose from.
Garrett Fugate is a graduate student from St. Louis studying architecture.
FFA OF THE DAY
People are taking tablers way too seriously this year. All you have to do is give them a death glare and if they try to talk to you say, "Sorry, I can't even read."
Coalitions necessary for senate elections
Among all the reviled elements
of modern politics, few receive more animosity than political parties. Many accuse them of being highly divisive and domineering, existing
in a constant state of competition with one another. Some say they dehumanize candidates, turning them into simple puppets of the party message. Others deem them to be mere annoyances, saturating the public sphere with advertisements and volunteers aiming to get votes at all costs. One may understandably wonder why such baneful groups are allowed to exist at all. However, as history has shown, there is no viable alternative to the party system.
This is the situation that faces the student body in the ongoing debate over the existence of the coalition system. Just as parties are necessary to the functionality of the political system, coalitions are an indispensable element of Student Senate.
The benefits of coalitions are abundant. The coalitions offer a consolidated platform of ideas shared by a large group of students, which can be efficiently articulated to the student body for its consideration. By coming together to construct an organized set of ideals, candidates are able to create far-reaching plans to make the University of Kansas a better place for its students. After engaging in a constructive and reasoned debate over validity of their ideas, the student body is then able to cast their votes with confidence in the vision of KU that they are voting for.
Even for politically disengaged students, coalitions serve a vital role. By simplifying the election process
into a choice between two or three plans for the University, the coaliations offer all students the ability to make an informed decision about who to vote for.
Opponents of the coalition system pose
many of the same arguments made against political parties. However, one must think of the alternative to coalitions when considering these arguments. Instead of voters choosing between a small group of well-organized and well-known ideas, they would be forced into electing a fractured set of senators and executives, each holding their own conflicting ideas of what should be done. The business of Student Senate would be similarly chaotic, as each individual senator attempted to build a consensus around solutions that coalitions would have already provided.
The coalition system must be kept intact in order for Student Senate to continue to carry out its duties effectively and for the student body to know which path it is choosing for the University of Kansas. Coalitions provide senators with a set of common goals and students with a prospective plan for the University's future. Without them, student government would be a crippled and disorganized institution, absent of collective vision and action.
It is natural for people to come together around ideas they believe in. To eliminate student coalitions would deny senators and candidates the ability to organize around what they believe in.
Jesse Burbank is a freshman from Quinter studying political science and history.
THE FRANKAMP FUTURE
JAKE KAUFMANN/KANSAN
CHIRPS BACK
Follow us on Twitter @KansanOpinion.
Tweet us our opinions, and we just might publish them.
Do you think having coalitions is the best system for Student Senate elections?
@KansanOpinion It's smart,otherwise the system would be disorganized and nothing would get done.
@CatDamon
Length: 300 words
The submission should include the author's name, grade and homework. Find our full letter to the editor policy online at kansan.com/letters.
HOW TO SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Katie Kutsko, editor-in-chief
kkuotsk@kansan.com
Allison Kohn, managing editor
akohn@kansan.com
Luzen Armendariz, managing editor
larmendariz@kansan.com
Send letters to opinipm@kansas.com WET LETTER TO THE EDITOR in the email subject line.
@NickBAwesome
Anna Wenner, opinion editor
awenner@kansan.com
should have a two party system that divides the student body into two rival factions poised to battle each other.
Sean Powers, business manager spowers@kansan.com
Kolly Botts, sales manager kbotts@kansan.com
Jon Schitt, sales and marketing adviser
jschitt@kansan.com
CONTACT US
Brett Akagi, media director and content
strategist
bakagi@kansan.com
Members of the Kansas Editorial Board are Katie Kulson, Allison Moen, Lauren Armendariz, Anna Werner, Sean Powers and Kolb Bottes.
+