Staged questions damage SA reputation

Election time always seems to bring out the worst in everybody. With SA elections only a week away, I am sorry to say that the politics have already begun. Yesterday, the SISH Council (Special Interests, Service, and Hobbies) met to listen to the ideas of the parties running in this year's election so that we could choose the candidates whom we wish to endorse. This process is very important to all clubs as the leaders of SA implement and regulate policies that affect our club budgets, resources, requirements, etc. This is our chance to interact with the candidates, ask them questions, and learn about their platforms so that we can decide which candidates will best represent the interests of the clubs as well as the overall student population.

Yesterday at this meeting, I was sorry to learn that some of the parties running do not have the best interests of the student population at heart. The Progress Party, led by Greg Stern, strategically placed several of their campaign supporters in the audience to ask questions to all of the candidates. Later, in one of my classes, one of these campaigners, Sarah Rinelli, boasted that "it's great - we are sitting in on the council meetings asking really hard questions to make the other candidates look really stupid." These people sitting in on our meeting have never before attended SISH council meetings and they are not there for the good of our clubs. This was the time for e-board members like myself to ask the relevant questions necessary for determining which candidates are worthy of our endorsements. Our right to do this was cut short because of parties who would rather improve their own image than listen to the questions and needs of the students. E-board members have great responsibilities within the club infrastructure.

After displays like this, I lose faith in these potential leaders and I'll have to agree with Jeremy Burton's article ("No reason to vote," March 22) that so far, UB students have hardly been given worthy reason to vote.