Word: sacs
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Pryor dissolved the SAC last November because of its insularity and its failure to draw students to IOP events and activities. SAC had become an organization devoted to political infighting, not exciting students about politics. It is hard to see how the recent proposal will change that. The contentious elections for president and vice president of SAC will continue, the SAC committees which were hotbeds of student-staff conflict remain prominent. The only concession, it seems, is the end of SAC self-selection process. Instead, all students who have attended enough committee meetings can run and vote for leadership positions...
While this may solve some of the internal problems, it does not address the conflict between students and staff. To understand this problem properly, one must know that SAC is not a student organization. SAC was created as an advisory body (similar to the senior advisory committee that meets semesterly to advise the IOP staff) to ensure the IOP provided activities students would learn from and enjoy. What SAC became was a self-aggrandizing group fighting for complete control over IOP programming...
...seizeing control of IOP programming from staff, SAC wasted time and energy duplicating or even hindering staff efforts in those areas. The IOP staff is a group of professionals hired to provide the best possible political training to undergraduates. Their hands have been tied by student efforts to micromanage their activities...
...Undergraduates should adopt political causes, found political organizations and participate in campus politics. They should do all this independent from the IOP, drawing on it as a resource where they can find political mentorship, a forum for political debate and place where they can find logistical support. Ironically, SAC encourages students passionate about politics to remain outside the political arena by becoming entrenched in SAC. The IOP was founded to inspire students to pursue politics. But it is not a place for students to exercise political leadership, as was so aptly demonstrated by the actions of SAC in recent years...
...Pryor was courageous to reconstitute SAC. His actions gave many hope that the IOP would become a place of political mentorship and debate, not bitter infighting and ruthless politicking. Pryor should not back away from the challenge he posed in November by accepting this retrograde proposal. There is no courage in repeating the past...