Student government is a constant throughout our education. It starts off as a socializing tool in elementary school to teach us about the wonders of democracy; by high school it evolves, or rather devolves, into institutionalized popularity. By the time we arrive at college, we would expect student government to have some teeth in order to effectively represent student interests. Our own Marquette Student Government takes on this task with enthusiasm, but while MUSG has no doubt made contributions to the betterment of the university, it has not fulfilled nearly as many of its promises — some made during the spring campaign — as one would hope.

The addition of the PrintWise stations to the Alumni Memorial Union and the lengthening of the hours at John P. Raynor, S.J. Library are commendable implementations.

But we haven't seen much else in the way of real results. We have been told that the information kiosks, promised in the campaign platform of MUSG President Tim Lefeber and Executive Vice President Emily Rostkowski, are on the way, but students have not yet seen any progress on the initiative.

Thankfully, some campaign promises were not fulfilled. The idea of putting free snacks in the MUSG office to attract more students smells of elementary school pandering. MUSG was right to drop that goal. This is not to say they were wrong in trying to reach out to students. MUSG should take a pro-active approach to student involvement. Rather than waiting for students to come to the organization, the organization should approach the students. There needs to be more initiative to outreach beyond the usual circle of active members. Perhaps having a MUSG representative attend other student organization meetings would help involvement grow. The disconnect between MUSG and your average Marquette student is something MUSG needs to work harder at solving.

Of course, this is a two-way street. If students expect some kind of change within the university, they need to talk to the people who can actually make a difference — MUSG. To help facilitate this, MUSG might want to look into making more of an effort to publicize their meeting times and locations.

With increased student involvement, MUSG might reorder some of its priorities. Some of the issues they've spent a time on have little consequential output, like the Warriors/Golden Eagles debate or the off-campus shooting. While both issues are indeed important, there is little that MUSG can actually do about them. Law enforcement and public safety are the only organizations equipped to deal with safety concerns, not MUSG. The forums to talk about the mascot issue, which were put together by the Office of Public Affairs and MUSG, had low attendance. While they may have been useful for the students who attended, clearly were not as effective as other projects could have been.

MUSG might want to spend more time on events that have been shown to be successful, such as Late Night Marquette.

Student government is ultimately a thankless job, regardless of whatever accomplishments the organization manages. Like any other kind of government, most attention is directed toward the negative, whether blunders or inaction. MUSG is not doing a bad job, but they could be doing better.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Jan. 27 2005.