I am currently attending a public college (Cal State) and during one of my boredom binges I figured I’d roam around my college’s website to see if it had anything of interest. E.g. Checking up the calendar for events, scholarships, budget meeting ect. Eventually I found myself in the associated student’s government section and noticed that, despite my belief that they were simply a useless and unimportant organization, they controlled a substantial amount of money. Namely in allocating funds for events and club activites. Now of course I thought to myself, surely this money comes from somewhere, it doesn’t just show up without miracle. The money must either come from tuition payments (from myself and other students) or from funding coming from the government (and so from the enslaved taxpayer).
Now I think to myself. While student governments aren’t exactly as huge a burden as other governments, its existence isn’t completely negligible. If it was removed and the money under its control subsequently no longer was being taken from tuition or from the taxpayer, it could do some good. Students would hopefully have a lower tuition by removing a service they might not exactly require, and taxpayers might hopefully have the amount of tax on them lowered. Not to mention the potential of getting students to wonder if abolishing student governments are good, why not abolish all governments?
And so the purpose of my post here. By chance has anyone ever heard of an attempt to abolish a student government or otherwise have any suggestions for attempting to do so? Please and thank you.
I was thinking the same thing when I was attending university. I believe student governments are dangerous training grounds for those who have greater political aspirations. It gives them their first taste of power and control over their peers, and reinforces their superiority complex. I don’t think you can get rid of the institution of student governments themselves as they seem to be a reflection of societal naivety and democracy worship. They exist for the same reasons that public schools exist; indoctrination and conditioning. They get future “leaders” acclimated to the voodoo of statecraft. You won’t get rid of student governments until you remove from the people their faith in democracy and the democratic process.
I go to UT Austin and it is exactly like this… some of my friends used to be involved and either left or were dismissed by those at the helm of the organization.