Letters to the Editor

Why you should care about MSA

The Minnesota Student Association is your undergraduate student government. We represent undergraduate student needs to the University administration and to the larger Twin Cities community.

It is true that the current state of MSA does not allow for institutional power to create unilateral changes within the University. That lack of power is a reflection of the lack of students' power at the University. But we should not feel defeated. Rather, we should be indignant, and we should be better organized. This year's MSA has been working on creating better relationships through working on coalitions with other student groups on issues such as housing and student fees.

So, MSA represents students needs -- neato. Maybe that does not compel you to care about MSA. Let's take the issue of tuition. Many students are resigned to believing that every year, with good reason or without, tuition will increase against the wishes of students. MSA takes its obligatory stand against administrative increases in tuition.

At the forum meeting your elected student representatives try to create a position which will do the most good for the most students. This position will be relayed to constituents, administration and local media. The Daily, in its best Woodward and Bernstein headline, sets up the forum in terms of MSA divisions, in-fighting and no real change. The tone of student government failure has been set.

Who loses when student government is undermined? Students' needs lose out every time. This year's MSA advocates a tuition increase at the rate of inflation, 2 percent. MSA's (your) voice is given low institutional priority; administration believes since students did not vote in the elections, they must not care. Therefore, MSA (your voice) has little institutional power and is not as successful as it would like to be.

Students hear that MSA failed in keeping tuition low and continue to believe that MSA does not have any ramifications in their lives. Students stay uninvolved, inactive and uninterested in the sordid affair of student government. And who benefits? Tuition goes up without any student resistance, and administration has manufactured our consent to almost any increases by keeping the volume of student voices at a low mumble. We, the student body, fight among ourselves, and our main goals slip away.

I believe that students want to believe in their student government's competence, effectiveness and ability to create positive change. However, there are too many factors which make it easy to be cynical. Don't get me wrong -- cynicism is an important tool for change. Students should never easily give away their rights to be cynics. Additionally, MSA should own up to its dubious, recent history of hostile relations with student organizations, internal struggles over personal agendas and lack of a goal to engage the larger student body. The current leadership in MSA has been working to recreate a student government which is accountable to students.

That said, the onus is not all on MSA. The student government is only as powerful as students want it to be. We are driven by your needs, and we are accountable to you. When MSA fails, the students fail. When MSA succeeds, the students succeed. Criticize and critique, be frustrated and be pleased, but the bottom line is show that you care about your student voice. MSA will not achieve anything for students without student support.

At worst student government is a frustrating exercise in governmental logistics. At best it is a vehicle for lasting social change. MSA will always have both of these features in all the work it does. Students get what we settle for. If you are satisfied with rising tuition, high parking costs, campuses which still are unsafe in the evenings, working a full-time job to afford an education, low retention of students and faculty of color and a host of other unpleasant realities; continue to belittle MSA. If you want real change, we need to work at all levels from rallies in the street to educational curricula which challenges dominant paradigms to a student government which will organize and advocate for change. This year's MSA is doing its part -- are you doing yours?

Nikki Kubista,MSA president

Erin Ferguson,MSA vice president