Once upon a time, there was an election week at Ryerson. Now things are much simpler — election season never ends.
Next Wednesday, you’ll be voting on the Student services referendum and the student candidates for the board of governors (see your well-scrubbed student candidates, next page). An important vote, don’t get me wrong. And later this year, students will be heading back to the ballot box to see if we want to stay a member of CFS as we elect the new RyeSAC executive.
Hold on a second…didn’t we vote on CFS just last year? Ah, well. What’s a little time and paper to make absolutely positively finally sure that we want to stay. We should check these things as often as we can — keep a finger on the pulse of the school, right?
Hell, let’s have a referendum every day. We can just set up ballots to be filled in as students come into the school. What will Paul Cheevers have for lunch today: salami or chicken? Vote! What colour chalk should be used in classrooms? Vote!
The key is this: keep people busy. As long as we keep getting electoral bones thrown to us (CFS or no? Who to elect to the board of governors? What should be served in the cafeteria?) we’ll think that a responsible government is in power, benevolently leaving The Important Stuff up to us peons. Meanwhile, the big issues — tuition, course selection, program structure, instructor/course evaluations — are being quietly looked after, leaving us free to sweat over a six-dollar ombudsman fee.
Even better, maybe after dealing with school, municipal, provincial, federal, and god-knows-what-other elections, John and Jane Q. Public will be so sick of having to decide things that they will just give up, become more jaded than ever and sit back to watch the celebrity trial of the month, letting every decision be made for them. They voted and nothing changed, right?
Vote. It’s important. The issues at hand affect every Ryerson student, and will for years to come. But as you vote, think about the problems and concerns you have about this school that have been taken out of your hands. You have a vote. That’s good. But is it enough?
That’s up to you.
– Matthew Sheperd
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