With the reality of the new referendum erasing all Student Council (StuCo) bylaws as we know them, student government is left with the mammoth task of redrafting their entire infrastructure. The major restructuring coincides with the annual appointment of next year's Milton S. Eisenhower (MSE) Symposium co-chairs, a task whose execution suddenly poses substantial questions.
The Committee on Leadership Appointment (COLA), consisting of one StuCo member from each class, traditionally appointed leaders of major StuCo subgroups, such as Spring Fair and the Symposium, and then handed them to StuCo for approval. With the passage of last month's referendum, COLA is no longer under StuCo's jurisdiction.
Though this situation may be temporary, in this period of oversight limbo, COLA must act responsibly to appoint leaders to the most powerful student groups on campus. MSE, the organization that brought Ann Coulter and Michael Moore to campus this year, is a direct beneficiary of roughly $100,000 from the Dean of Student Life.
COLA exists to eliminate the bias that inevitably occurs when groups select their own successors. However, to select the leaders for groups as important as the MSE Symposium, Spring Fair, Hopkins Organization for Programming (HOP) and the Board of Elections (BoE), it is essential for those who are experienced and knowledgeable about the job to be actively involved in the selection process.
COLA should take the initiative to act now in an example of what they could be.
In place to handpick some of the most powerful student leaders on campus, COLA should establish an official policy of having former co-chairs on their advisory council when hearing proposals for new candidates.
"COLA's always been really disorganized. They don't know what they're doing," said Dennis Boothe, co-chair of the 2002 MSE Symposium. Although he and his co-chair were called for advice last year to interview last year's MSE chair applicants, he said that when his generation was selected, COLA representatives "had no idea" what the job entailed.
With several groups of applicants running for MSE chairpersons, COLA should invite former co-chairs to sit on the committee to educate, ask appropriate questions, highlight relevant issues and make comments. Former chairs should then receive at least one combined vote on COLA when the committee selects their successor.
After adopting this policy for MSE selection this month, StuCo should then draft into the new bylaws an official mandate that former co-chairs sit and vote on COLA for their respective successors.
COLA needs the guidance that only those students familiar with a process can bring. COLA has the objectivity; the former co-chairs have the experience. A marriage is in order.
