Wednesday night, we followed the many twists and turns of the Student Senate meeting, which was supposed to end with a new vice president and a sigh of relief for senate members. Many of you tuned in to the goings on too, if the reaction on social media was any indication of interest.
Usually, an uptick in student interaction would be a positive for senate — after all, it looks to represent the student body — but there was not much good news to come from Walter Hall. Three senate members resigned during the meeting, including Treasurer Austin LaForest, who did so without actually being present for the proceedings. His successor was named fewer than 10 minutes later.
The body is in such disarray that even its hired public relations manager resigned this week. All of this was on the heels of a controversy that was already brewing before senate members had even grabbed their morning cup of coffee.
Late Tuesday night, The New Political published an article that quoted Student Trustee Keith Wilbur and Student Senate President Anna Morton in alleging that other senate members were involved in the theft of Post newspapers last spring.
We would like to note that our interest in the newspaper theft story is not personal — we are not upset about the incident and bear no ill will toward the perpetrators, whoever they might be.
Rather, we believe there is a more significant issue at hand.
Student Senate is meant to be a marketplace of ideas — a place in which students’ ideas are solicited, weighed carefully and brought to administrators, trustees and legislators.
If senate members did in fact play a part in the theft of the newspapers, which featured The Post’s endorsement of the FUSS ticket, the opposition party to the quasi-incumbent VOICE, that is about as contrary to the above mission as you can get.
Also concerning is the timing of these allegations, which only emerged after the resignation of former President Nick Southall, who was named as a conspirator in The New Political article. Convenient, no?
It is also fishy that two of the university’s most prominent student leaders had knowledge of an alleged crime but did not take the information to law enforcement. It’s hard to argue that their intentions are not purely self-serving if they didn’t feel compelled to come forward when it first happened.
So not only do we have allegations of senate members actively working to suppress opinions, we also have leaders who sat on that information — at least until coming forward only when it fit their schedules and, presumably, their political agendas.
That is completely unacceptable.
If Morton is committed to righting the ship, she should fully investigate the allegations and, if there is any proof, ensure those individuals are never part of senate again.
This is just another in a seemingly never-ending series of snafus involving senate. But we doubt this is rock bottom. With such shaky leadership in its past — from executives paying themselves to build their own website to a drunken run-in with law enforcement in Florida — it is no surprise that senate is crumbling from within.
The organization itself might not be fundamentally broken, but its members have repeatedly demonstrated their self-serving tendencies while holding supposedly representative positions. If the remaining members of senate want to rebuild, they will need to salvage the valuable pieces and start afresh.
So, what’s next for senate? We don’t know. And we don’t think anyone in senate knows either.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post’s executive editors.
