And this is John Russell’s response to Patrick Delaplain’s argument in favor of ASUN
An Argument Against ASUN
I would invite other club leaders to respond to this as well, but allow me to answer these questions based upon my experience (worked for asun, ran for election, club leader my entire time). Before starting the list, you mentioned that the ASUN may have affected students in a way that they do not immediately notice, such as campus escort or free food. The problem with this argument is that those services you provide cannot be provided to every single student, so that means there are certain people getting screwed (the apathetic – super majority) and others who are benefiting (us – elite few). This is wrong, very, very wrong. Okay, let’s begin:
1) This question falsely assumes student input is already in the process of how ASUN spends money. Last I checked, the ASUN itself is powerless in the allocation of nearly 50% of its funds as it is being gobbled up by the staffers. This is wrong.
2) Profits? The 5% profit that ASUN is skimming off the top of every textbook? Well I hope that would be eliminated and provided at cost.
3) Why should such organizations/activities endure if people are unwilling to pay for them? It is similar to asking “What if the hole diggers and the hole fillers were eliminated?” – Nobody wanted them in the first place. Which leads into number…
4) Nobody wants them. (and by nobody, i mean the other 90% that don’t vote/dont even know what ASUN is. Those are the people are who are really being screwed).
5) I did not realize student organizations needed to be managed. If by managed you mean completely disenfranchised by bureaucracy, then I suppose this claim has legitamacy. Otherwise, human beings will still organize and rally themselves just as we have done since the stone age. The only difference is that clubs that cannot survive without club funding will be eliminated while the good clubs who have enough synergy will endure and be just as strong. People who think clubs would just disappear if ASUN did are generally only ASUN hacks.
6) Again, you are assuming the ASUN is the voice. On average, the ASUN has about a 10% voter turnout. The ASUN senate, as mentioned in a previous post, is dominated by a certain group of people.
7) a. You assume campus programming is wanted. You assume people want the stupid flipside events.
b. What people have really failed to realize thus far is that our event is NO DIFFERENT than any flipside event, we just threw together a video of it actually happening. Thats the true kicker.
By illustrating our waste, we are illustrating the waste of the activities board of ASUN as a whole, and, as we have seen, people are pissed off. So much in fact, that they want it abolished.
