Student Government seems more prone to crises and spectacles than it’s ever been in recent memory. Goings-on in SG have always had a flair for the dramatic, but previous incidents have been the doing of apparently individual actors or have stemmed from power plays conceived out of sight.
Rarely has the drama taken the form of a coup.
Well, “coup” may be a bit of a strong word to describe what happened during Tuesday’s Student Senate meeting — more like one of the major SG events in the past five years.
During the meeting, a new independent Senate coalition announced its formation to the rest of the senators, many of whom were totally blindsided by the event. It wasn’t quite as dramatic as dragging handcuffed representatives into chambers to make quorum, but it’s about as close as we’re ever going to get.
The coalition is lead by Sen. Michael Christ, who held fast through the waning days of the Students Party’s opposition. Christ, an independent Senator who is also the campaign manager for Access Party, is joined by 20 other senators.
What’s exciting and significant about this is that 18 of Christ’s followers are former Swamp Party senators, and that’s a “former” as of Tuesday. These senators cited multiple grievances and ills when they revoked their membership from the majority party, from general dissatisfaction with the way Swamp is running things to the selection of a former Swamp Majority Leader Austin Sherman as this semester’s election commissioner.
Call it a protest, a coup or a betrayal — Tuesday’s announcement is symbolic in a vital way. That so many party members have jumped ship should send a message to Swamp: The days when it could do whatever it felt like doing are finished.
Access’ creation was much less of a threat; Swamp has weathered opposition parties before. Its previous incarnations did, too — the same way they were able to survive major scandals. All they needed then was a name change and a fresh coat of paint. What Access has done is reveal cracks in the party’s facade. Now that a chasm has been forced open, there’s enough room for opposition to move around comfortably.
Swamp messed up in a big way when it selected Sherman as election commissioner. Granted, anybody who’s eligible for the post would likely have been involved with Swamp at some level. The odds are overwhelmingly in favor of that, but to select somebody as clearly a part of Swamp as Sherman was is careless. Otherwise, it smacks of giving an SG post to a friend in anticipation of a tough election. Because of that decision, Swamp has lost 18 seats before elections even began.
We applaud the end of an effective single-party system, and we look forward to some stiff competition this election season.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 2/12/2015 under the headline “Senate meeting’s dramatic end sign of stiff competition"]
