SGA Rejects Anti-War Resolution

Author: Alyssa Jumars

Many of you no doubt noticed the tables that were set up outside Proctor and Ross last week and heard the pleas of: "Would you like to sign an anti-war resolution?" Perhaps some of you are wondering what has come of the 900-odd signatures that were gathered in support of a Student Government Association (SGA) resolution to express the general opposition of Middlebury students to a unilateral war with Iraq.
On Sunday night the signatures and the proposed resolution were presented to the Student Government, and, lamentably, the senators' reactions were much less enthusiastic than those of the cafeteria-goers. Members of the SGA expressed a reluctance to take a political position, arguing that making a formal statement against war with Iraq is beyond the scope of the SGA. The scope of the SGA, as articulated by many of its members, is limited to addressing college policy and the academic and social lives of Middlebury students. This appears to include "pizza sticks and study-breaks," but not issues of global importance.
Although the Middlebury College Handbook (on page 48) defines the role of the SGA as a "vehicle through which students can ... collectively express their views on matters of general interest to the student body," the SGA decided during its session on Sunday night that even voting on a resolution against pre-emptive war in Iraq is beyond its bounds. Evidently, the matter of a war that would cost taxpayers billions of dollars per month, that would directly involve immediate family members of Middlebury students and that would moreover claim the lives of countless innocent Iraqi civilians is not "of general interest to the student body."
It is disappointing that the SGA is unwilling to even consider representing the collective voice of Middlebury students. Although only 900 signatures were gathered in support of the anti-war resolution, they were collected on short notice, and it is likely that a large majority of students would have signed if there had been more time. Although I understand the SGA's fear of making a comprehensive political statement, I feel not only that the majority of students would be in favor of the college taking a formal political stance against war, but also that by refusing to vote on the resolution, the SGA has also made a political statement. After all, silence is consent.

Alyssa Jumars is from Whitefield, Maine, and joined several other students in drafting the resolution.