It's official. At ASMSU, MSU's undergraduate student government, the inmates finally have assumed control of the asylum.
In a move that ranges from empty threat to all-out insubordination, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Representative Bruce Serven has asked the MSU Board of Trustees to revoke university recognition of ASMSU as the official undergraduate student government. Serven made his point by sending the request to the board itself, several news outlets - including The State News - and his colleagues in a move of self-aggrandizing activism not seen since Jerry Maguire's manifesto.
Now, the enigmatic force that is Bruce Serven. Some of Serven's platform: The ASMSU election code should allow political parties to endorse candidates (we agree), students and the governing body need to connect better (we agree), and ASMSU should have opened the bid on legal services (we agree). All valid points, to be sure. And what's even more refreshing about Serven is that it's an ASMSU representative raising these concerns.
The only thing missing from Serven's well-intentioned indictment of ASMSU inefficiency? Tact. The Serven listing of grievances was sent to the media before other ASMSU reps were clued in. He called for the Board of Trustees to essentially audit his organization performance, and he urged ASMSU to reconsider appointments to elections only a handful of days after requesting appointments happen sooner. In case he forgot that his letter was a persecution of his colleagues' competency, Serven covered all bases by maintaining he spoke as a student, not as an ASMSU representative.
His goals are well-meaning. His criticism of ASMSU's inefficiencies certainly is relevant, and he proved that he certainly knows how to get the message out to the media. But to paraphrase what we think to be the sentiments of his co-workers, Serven is a complete blowhard.
Serven petitioned the eight-member Board of Trustees to audit ASMSU because his fellow representatives weren't listening to him. It takes a small army to get the board to do anything, let alone form a committee to explore the circumstances. Serven should have known, if he didn't already, that it's highly improbable that the board will take his complaints seriously or into consideration at all. Serven is a representative of his college and whether he likes it or not, his face represents representative democracy in action. As a result, it's the responsibility of ASMSU to marshal its own shortcomings, and Serven should have focused his efforts on that.
We'd like to emphasize again that Serven's concerns are just. He's certainly not the first to criticize the innocuous and sometimes frivolous actions of the student government, and he certainly won't be the last. But electrifying constituents into listening to his causes by blatant attention-seeking is not behavior reflective of an elected official, no matter how useless he thinks his assembly is.
Bruce Serven has a duty to serve ASMSU and represent students of his college in what he believes to be their best interests. That was the basis of his election and should be the cornerstone of his effort. He's more than entitled to air his grievances, but when the goal is repair, it's best to fix what's broken rather than scrap the entire system.
