Column:

My MSA platform: Wreck their system

By Dan Friesen

Published Oct. 31, 2006

Children, I have a dream. I have a dream of a time when Missouri Students Association presidential candidates are not all tools. I have a dream of a time when the student body has a genuine voice on campus. I have a dream of a day when I figure out this whole "diversity" thing.

There's an interesting irony in the uniformity of the rhetoric about diversity that MSA candidates are throwing around. Of course, I, like numerous students with whom I have spoken, understand diversity — as the candidates seem to mean it — as just being code for a racial/ethnic issue that predominantly involves black students. I'm down with that, but I see diversity as a far bigger concept.

I believe that one who supports diversity has to support intellectual diversity — diversity of opinion and diversity of ideas. Don't misunderstand me; I think respecting people of disparate racial backgrounds, sexualities and religious inclinations is important.

I just think that MSA (the lame-duck, puppet student government) doesn't have anything to do with admissions. I'm fairly sure the adults are in charge of that. Plus, I think the federal government (the real government) is behooved to protect minority groups.

Now, diversity of opinion seems to be something MSA has a lot of trouble embracing. That, too, makes sense.

One opinion a potential candidate might have is that the entire system is in dire need of an overhaul. He or she might believe that serious reform is the only way to make this system capable of truly representing the entirety of campus.

Perhaps this potential candidate believes it is a serious encroachment on his or her free speech to be required to have his or her campaign materials pre-approved by a board whose members are part of the system.

I'm sure you see the problem: Someone who holds such beliefs cannot possibly run for president in our system without compromising their integrity and either lying about it or having to rationalize why they don't mind being a total sellout. Either way, they effectively give the student body ample reason not to vote for them.

Something needs to be understood. The segment of campus that does not vote in these garbage elections is not necessarily apathetic about MU. I wish there was someone fighting for rational positions on my behalf; it's just that all the MSA candidates I have seen in my years here — with few exceptions and had no real chance of winning anyway — look and act like phony future politicians: dishonest, slick, clearly having taken a few public speaking and public relations classes.

I know they have ambition, and that's fine. It's just that it also tends to make one not want to disrupt and agitate when there is something wrong happening. That God-awful Tiger Spot would have never gone up on my watch.