Return of the Senate

Last night the ASUW Senate went through the annual exercise of electing next year's leaders. The process is painful and slow, although not nearly as painful as running for the ASUW Board of Directors. I would suggest, however, that the the ASUW Senate has a much more informed electorate and often makes decisions that are much more far looking than the average voter in the ASUW election. The result is Senate leaders are often a head above the Board leadership in terms of capabilities and generally "getting it." But that doesn't stop the Daily from reporting that the Senate Leadership is only elected by the Senators while the BOD is elected by the campus body. Its unfortunate that the press often fails to understand the subtleties of government formation. I'm waiting for the day for the press to renounce the leadership of the U.S. Senate or House Leadership because they aren't elected by the nation as a whole. That's the whole point of representative government... we elect leaders who then make these sorts of decisions with better information and more time for deliberation.

Anyway, the leaders who were elected were, in fact, a head above the rest. Alex Kim as Chair, Erin Shields as Vice Chair, Travis Grandy as Membership Coordinator, and Travis McCoy as Secretary. The bottom two seem good, but I don't really know them. But the top two are quite fantastic. Alex is easily one of my most favorite ASUW people these days, has great respect for the Senate and actually listens to his elders (a big change from current leadership). Erin is also top-notch. She was Sam Castic's Senate Buddy back in the day of the Senate Buddy program, has been an active participant, and has all sorts of passion. On top of all that, she adds some gender diversity in the Officer corp after a year with all males.

I'm really looking forward to working with them next year in my capacity as GPSS.