Endorsing Benson: Student Power on Campus

When endorsing a candidate for Student Co-Chair of Community Council (SCOCC), it is essential to define the position within the context of the college community. What does this student, a representative elected by peers, actually have the power to do? At first glance, the answer appears somewhat discouraging. The student serving as the SCOCC cannot legislate college policy. Rather, he or she works with the Council's numerous subcommittees to bring issues important to students, faculty and staff to the consideration of Old Chapel.

Yet we believe that the position is not entirely insubstantial, largely because the SCOCC has the ear of key members of the administration, including Dean of the College Shirley Collado, who serves as the other co-chair of the Council. Far from being powerless, the SCOCC position has the potential to give students a real voice in college policies – if the student serving can work effectively with members of the administration to get things done. In the hands of a competent, confident student with extensive experience, the SCOCC can indeed have great influence.

Given this criterion, the Campus editorial board endorses Kathryn Benson '13. Benson not only has well-established relationships with key administrators, including Associate Dean of Students for Student Activities and Orientation J.J. Boggs, she also has a platform ripe with tangible objectives that would benefit the experience of students, faculty and staff at the College. For example, if elected, Benson would create a means for student groups and professors to coordinate joint event-planning, lowering the barrier between our academic and extracurricular spheres. Other notable initiatives on Benson's agenda include exploring a collaborative model with local businesses as well as making dorms feel more like home by painting colorful murals on currently white walls.

Benson has already shown effective leadership skills in a variety of forums, including serving as Ross Commons Co-Chair, Student Government Association (SGA) Senator and intern in the Student Activities Office. As SGA Senator, Benson took the initiative to address a pressing socioeconomic issue on campus, authoring a successful resolution requiring professors to put all textbooks on reserve in the library, as opposed to being sold exclusively in the bookstore. We are confident that, if elected, Benson would advance a productive agenda, already laid forth, and welcome new ideas from students. She plans to create a blog to which students can submit feedback and view meeting notes, and also to move Community Council meetings from Old Chapel to the Crest Room, promoting a more inviting atmosphere for student participation.

The competing candidate for the SCOCC position, Barrett Smith '13, envisions a different role. Smith, whose campus experience includes working with the Social Justice Coalition, offers a distinct vision for the community: one that urges students to participate more actively in their government and demands that structures at the College operate in a more democratic way. Simply put, Smith has big ideas. His leading initiative, a social honor code, would require students to take responsibility for their own behavior and consider its effects on others and the surrounding environment. Unlike the College's current academic honor code, Smith's proposed code may be reaffirmed or adjusted each year, as students see fit.
Such initiatives are certainly admirable, but we do not feel the position as it currently operates is the most effective means through which to achieve this type of long-term change. The student elected as SCOCC should maximize benefits for those whom they represent – the students themselves. While both candidates seek to create a better community for their fellow students, Benson's platform is more realistic precisely because she has extensive experience working with the administration.

However, the election of the SCOCC raises important issues about student representation on campus. Currently, no college body that includes students has the authority to enact policy. While the SGA has access to funds, it can only make non-binding resolutions, essentially signaling to the administration what is important to students. No students currently sit on the Board of Trustees, nor do they have the authority to dictate official policy in the College's handbook. We firmly believe students should be given increased opportunity to directly legislate college policy, yet we do not take this role lightly. Structures that make enacting change a difficult, slow process are in place for a reason; any effort to alter them to allow for greater student representation and influence must be both thoughtful and realistic. How we envision such a position is crucial. Do we want the student body to vote on policy developed by elected student representatives? Should we open up the policy-making process to any and all students? Power can operate in numerous ways; as such, it should be considered seriously.