1991_03 The Daily Collegian March 1991

              ASLPetty battles do nothing to benefit student population
Continued from page 2
tion su pported Unity-SRG, not
so much for its ideology (which
no one really knew, although
they were vaguely felt to be
"liberal"), but simply toget rid
of Reality.
ButUnity-SRG has spent that
political capital on a witchhunt
that no one wanted but them.
On the whole, CSUFstudents
are not motivated by ideology,
but by a combina Hon of selfish¬
ness and indifference. Nonethe¬
less, there are very few of us
who have anything kind to say
abou t racism, sexism, or homo¬
phobia. But the Unity-SRG
administrations of Cogley and
hersuccessor, Don Daves, have
found their club against the
opposition. They wield it bru¬
tally, on the very people they
say they are protecting.
Due to their efforts, AS! is in¬
creasingly dissociated from the
interests of the people it repre¬
sents, increasingly contemp-
tous of their wants, and as a
result ethnic relations at CSUF
have reached the highest level
of hostility since the early
1970's.
That is where our money
goes. It gives power to nonenti¬
ties, so they can play the master
over us. The threat they hold
over us is the control of our
own money. At the cost of $16
per student per semester, we
areallowing this whole absurd
structure of "pretend politics"
to exist.
This is the atmosphere into
which the Young Americans for
Freedom puts forth theirseduc-
tive proposal. But while the idea
is credible, YAF is not. For one
thing, they have only six mem¬
bers. They first made them¬
selves noticeable at CSUF at
the beginning of the semester
in a flag-waving pro-war dem¬
onstration, encouraging pas-
sersby to sign a petition express¬
ing support for the war effort.
Their new booth in the free
speech area prominantly dis¬
plays the stars and stripes, inan
attempt to use wartime patriot¬
ism to lend legitimacy to their
conservative politics. Their
proposal, 1 suspect, comes more
from ideological rivalry with
the liberal Unity-SRG, than real
distress over their $16.
I did speak to some YAF
members at their handsome
pine booth, and I was not im¬
pressed by their arguments.
They seem to have only the
vaguest notion as to what will
■happen after ASI fees are made
optional. They do not believe
there will beasudden cut-off of
funds, eliminating ASI alto¬
gether.
They do believe that under
this threat, ASI will suddenly
acquire financial responsibility.
They would like.to see conser-
vativecandidates in ASI offices.
In case no one decides to pay
BUD
LIGHT
BUD DRY draft, KKDJ and CSU FRESNO
CYCLING TEAM PRESENTS-
LOST LAKE / BULLDOG
?       CRITERIUM
e Sunday, March 10, 1991 fc
Colleges from all over the states will be com¬
peting'for top honors in the 1.3 mile loop
multi-lap race. Races start at 8:00 a.m. and
continue throughout the day.
NOT JUST A RACE, AN EVENT!
• LIVE MUSIC: "Neanderthals"
"John Mahassey, The Blues Masters"
"Glen Delpit and the Subterraneans"
• KKDJ LIVE REMOTE
• MAJOR PRIZE GIVE-AWAYS
• OPEN SAND VOLLEYBALL COURTS
• FOOD (But BYOB)
So Come JoitiXls For The Festivities and
Some of The FastesTBicycle Racing in The Nation!!
Everything else is just a light
We brewour beers
-^jLjd be enjoyed.
^|^ responsibly
Please cut out this box and recycle it
ASI fees, what will these con¬
servative office-holders do?
"Well, they do a lot of things
that don't take money."
Yes, but those things are
largely symbolic, like resolu¬
tions about the war, and not
anything of real benefit to the
students. They believe the ma¬
jority of students-theones who
don't vote in ASI elections -
support YAF positions and at¬
titudes. You know, I heard the
same thing from Unity-SRG
three years ago.
The thing to keep in mind
about all this is that there are
real politics and pretend poli¬
tics. The pretend politics is
about things that are not rele¬
vant to the university; for ex¬
ample, ASI takinga position on
the war, and YAFs opposition
to ASI's position. Neither one
of these groupscan presume lo
say they speak for the students
on thismatter,and the students
should be allowed to speak for
themselves. Anyway, we have
congressmen to represent us to
thc federal government.
The real politics is about the
million-dollar budget of ASI,
and what we want ASI to do
with it.
YAF is not going to give us
greater control over this money;
their sole concern is hiking il
away from L'nitv-SKG. hv
whatever means they can.
Wc do need to reform ASI.
But wc the students must do it;
it cannot be done by fringe
political groups. It is too impor¬
tant a matter to leave to people
like YAF. Wcmustn'tattow our
interests lo be tied to anyone's
political biases.
The last time reform was
spoken ot seriously here, wc
threw the rascals out only to let
the knaves in. If wc give too
much credence to YAF, the
entire process of pretend poli¬
tics and witchhunting will start
over again, and no one will be
served.
SowhatcanwedoaboutASI?
Here are my suggestions:
Control of the budget must be
passed from the Senate to sev¬
eral student oversight commit¬
tees, to prevent the spending
power from falling into too few
hands. A new system for taking
student opinion should be in¬
troduced, to determine exactly
what the students want their
government to do.
Whatever this system might
be, it must measure response
against actual enrollment, so we
will not be prey to any more
vocal minorities. The patron¬
age system of supporting the
budgets of student clubs must
cease. ASI could be spending
much more on projects sup¬
ported by all students than
individual organizations. If ASI
fees are to be made optional, it
should be within the context of
an entire package of budget
reform, not as a single showy
glamor issue.
There is much more that
could be done to improve ASL
It must be done within a new
spirit of student politics. ASI
should respond to student
wants, not dictate to us. We
mustnotallow ASI, or any other
group to act so insolently ro us
ever again.
Mr Bennett is a pbiiosoply ma¬
jor.