Last night, the Swamp Party took the available UF Student Government seats by storm.
I’ve been a student at UF for almost four years, and I’m beginning to notice something: the majority party is utterly corrupt.
I will attempt to convince you of this.
Let me first address the issue of the name of the majority party.
Before the Swamp Party was called the Swamp Party, it was called the Unite Party. That was only a year ago.
Before the Unite Party was known by that name, it was called the Gator Party.
Before the Gator Party was called that name, it was called the Swamp Party.
And so, the cycle continues, the beast changing names every few years. The old parties are forgotten and disappear suddenly, without a trace. The new party emerges with similar leadership, similar tactics, and with similar fraternities and sororities supporting these parties.
The biggest change is merely the branding.
Now I’ll address the peculiar pattern I’ve noticed in the majority’s executive slate.
The formula I’ve noticed is a white Student Body president is usually selected to run, followed by a black, Hispanic or Asian vice president and treasurer.
I don’t think I’m the only one to have noticed this. Maybe you’ve noticed it, too.
Last year, we had our first Asian-American SG president, Anthony Reynolds, but the only reason he was president at all is the originally selected white president, Ben Meyers, stepped down for “personal reasons.”
So, there are exceptions to the rule, but I don’t think one should conclude that there’s no general pattern.
I have even heard those who show the most support to the majority party are the white fraternities and sororities, and many of the SG positions then end up going to people in those fraternities and sororities.
This may seem like a silly qualm to some. If they supported Swamp more, then they should get more seats in SG, right?
Wrong.
Why should someone’s membership in a club be the determining factor when it comes to whether they’ll do what’s right for the students as a whole? I think this system of selecting candidates, the patronage system, fits the designation of “corrupt” quite well.
If that isn’t enough to convince you there’s corruption in the majority party, here’s more.
Three years ago, the minority party played a recording in the Senate chambers which showed the Greek organizations were, in fact, trying to force their members to vote, issuing penalties if members did not come back to the clubhouse with an “I Voted” sticker.
One sorority even gave alcohol to those who did return with an “I Voted” sticker.
Some students may not know this, but the SG boasts a budget of over $17.5 million.
This budget is later handled by a Student Senate committee which appropriates the money.
The minority party from a few years ago calculated that SG wasted $150,000 of student money in that year, according to the Fine Print.
I wonder how much is being wasted this year.
“The University of Florida’s Student Government has one of the largest Student Government budgets in the nation!” is what the SG website says.
Make no mistake in being optimistic: They are probably wasting our money, and they’re actually happy about it.
Next week, I will write about why the Swamp Party is dangerous to anyone in SG who has an opposing point of view and why the minority groups should stay far away from the Swamp Party.
Brandon Lee Gagne is an anthropology senior at UF. His column runs on Fridays. You can contact him via opinions@alligator.org.
