UB student George Pape was officially confirmed Tuesday in New York City as a SUNY trustee. Pape's rise as the most powerful student in New York state, while procedurally legitimate, is the product of lax SUNY rules governing the selection of officials for a body purportedly intended to represent the interests of students.
Pape's appointment to the trustee position demonstrates how easily a non-elected student can sit on NYSSA's executive board. Although not chosen a NYSSA delegate by UB students, Pape merely showed up at a NYSSA function, networked a bit, got himself appointed to a committee chair and from there rose in the ranks to his current position - a means of acquiring power that is completely allowable under current NYSSA regulations. The idea that a leader of an organization can be someone who is not even a member of that organization flies in the face of representative government. Instead of this haphazard free-for-all, NYSSA should emulate the House of Representatives, with members elected from each district and internal committees made up of members of the chamber, not strangers plucked off the street. What integrity can the NYSSA elections - and those who ascend to power through them - retain if they lead not to student representation but to screen a few wily politicians passing power between themselves?
The promotion of an outsider is unfair to students who actually campaigned for their office and were duly chosen by their fellow students. The commitment they have made is meaningless if someone can simply insert him or herself in the seats of power, stepping over those who took the proper, more arduous route to the top. When students claim, "My vote doesn't count," incidents like this only confirm that pessimistic, defeatist outlook. Jennifer Brace and Lazlo Keregyarto - the NYSSA delegates UB elected last year - are not seen among the senior leadership of that organization. Instead, Pape and Celine Traylor, a UB student who is not a NYSSA delegate but holds the position of vice president of the assembly, control the reins of the organization, despite the fact that they have no electoral mandate from UB students. Why should a student vote, why should a student run for NYSSA delegate, when all the evidence points to that as meaningless? The lesson to be learned is that it is not student support but backroom deals beyond the scrutiny of SUNY students that furnish the leaders of potentially the most powerful student body in the state.
The issue is a lack of accountability. Elected officials are at least minimally accountable to their constituent population because they must face that population come election day. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives may climb the ranks of the Congressional body by gaining powerful chairships or even the speaker position. Yet every two years, even the highest-ranking member must return to his or her district and face the people. Who will Pape and Traylor face come election day? It certainly will not be UB students, who never elected them in the first place.
While the provision permitting outsiders to join the ranks of NYSSA was probably intended to open the body to all SUNY students, not just a select few, this ideal is far from a reality. In practice, this loophole allows well-connected students to network their way to the top of the organization by circumventing the electoral process. This not only undermines democracy, but is a slap in the face to students who actually work for the votes of their constituents.
NYSSA leaders should be drawn from the NYSSA membership, composed of delegates elected by their respective SUNY institutions. This simple reform would restore the legitimacy of a body that currently is a mockery of representative democracy.
