As if walking through Sproul Plaza isn’t enough of an experience already, the A.S.U.C. elections began in the beginning of April, making such a walk barely tolerable. Everyday passing students had countless fliers thrown at them, signs shoved in their faces, and scores of campaign managers shouting at them to vote for their candidate. That being said, on the grander scale of things, these bombardments were simply temporary annoyances. It is Sproul Plaza, after all, and political elections are irritating whether it be a student council or national legislature up for grabs.

Oddly, the polarization of the annual A.S.U.C. election season is attributable in large part to national politics. Parties like CalSERVE and Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP) campaigned this year to help fight global warming, end racial discrimination, and support affirmative action. (Even the slightly more reasonable Student Action candidates promised “green” incentives.) Each one of their platform legs can be analyzed and debated; however, the greater problem with the two parties’ platforms is not their stances but rather their attempts at bringing national political issues to a campus with its own separate problems.

As Bears, we are all proud of our world-class status, but we must face the fact that our university is a small speck on the national radar. Cal cannot save the Middle East. Ultimately, the Middle East must save itself. Likewise, the Middle East cannot save Cal – or even the save-worthy A.S.U.C., for that matter. The same parties that put national politicking before cutting spending, a balanced budget, and saving students money, are all too often consumed by partisan divide on these issues instead of focusing on the real problems that our A.S.U.C. faces.

Sadly, this is by no means something new. Recall that in 2003 the A.S.U.C. was caught donating tens of thousands of dollars to campaign against a California proposition, some of which were allegedly compulsory student funds.

Just this March, the A.S.U.C. spent $20,000 on a recall election of then-Senator John Moghtader, a pro-Israel supporter, who was accused of brawling with pro-Palestinian students after an event last November. Despite the hearsay evidence (later revealed as lies), CalSERVE members largely supported the recall. In fact, The Daily Californian revealed in March that A.S.U.C. President Roxanne Winston overstepped her powers by secretly supporting Students for Justice in Palestine and greatly expediting the recall process.

These debacles are paradigm examples of what happens when national politics are unnecessarily brought into the A.S.U.C. Instead of spending $20,000 on funding programs for worthy student organizations, or improving facilities, the A.S.U.C. was all too ready to waste the money on a politically-charged witch hunt that was later factually proven to be as such.

More recently, on April 14, the A.S.U.C. Store Operations Board voted down a lease agreement with Panda Express that would bring the food chain to the A.S.U.C. Mall, citing the progressive protests against the potential deal. This lease agreement was, according to estimates given in The Daily Californian, an opportunity for the organization to get out of its $200,000 deficit. Panda Express would have given the A.S.U.C. $47,500 in rent and approximately $100,000-$200,000 of revenue each year. This potential deal was the student government’s opportunity to pull itself up by its bootstraps and continue as a financially sound institution. Instead, by engaging in the national debate over the “eco-friendliness” of Panda’s products (which, interestingly, have been rated by several publications as “America’s Healthiest Fast Food Choice”) the A.S.U.C. is back at square one, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and no plans to eliminate the deficit.

Parties like CalSERVE and DAAP are not as progressive as they claim to be. By caring more about promoting fringe-left policies and less about the financial stability and autonomy of the A.S.U.C., these parties do a disservice to their constituents.
The federal government is established to deal with federal issues, the state government to deal with state issues, and student governments to deal with student issues. Any mixing of these institutions’ goals is improper and futile – in short, a waste of time. Even Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement dealt with a campus issue.

With the modern financial crisis in its beginning stages and major budget cuts already in progress, now is an especially good time to focus instead on our own expenses and our own liberties – and maybe those of our struggling student government.

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