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Polling is abuzz in the world of the Undergraduate Council (UC). In an attempt to distance itself from some of the pitfalls of past administrations, this year's council, led by UC president John S. Haddock ’07 and vice-president Annie R. Riley ’07, has pledged to use polling more extensively to gauge student opinion on a range of issues; the UC is currently conducting a survey on the women’s center and polls on the future social programming have been proposed...
...would be hard to argue that the UC having better information about its constituent’s desires would be a bad thing. Without such information the UC flails in the dark. To wit, the most frustrating part of last semester’s UC resolution to support the Student Labor Action Movement’s (SLAM) living-wage campaign, was that it presumed to speak for a student body that it had yet to consult. In that vein, we certainly support UC initiatives to better ascertain the pulse of the student body. But we do so with significant caveats...
First, there is the troubling issue of burnout. Students have already proven, in many instances, apathetic about the UC. Despite massive campaigning outside the Science Center, only about 60 percent of the student body voted in December’s presidential election, and 40 percent voted in September’s general election. To think that there would be significant turnout for frequent polls would be unrealistic, and the UC should be careful not to inundate students with solicitations...
Second, and more importantly, polling should not be used to excuse UC members from acting as leaders. That means that individual UC members should stand at the forefront of debates leading up to polls, articulating their views and informing students. Otherwise, polls risk simply aggregating the ignorance of students on most UC issues. We elect UC representatives to be both experts and representatives. While we do not want a UC out of tune with students, we would be more concerned by a student government run entirely by referenda...
Specifically, we hope, except in rare circumstances, that the UC avoids polling directly on legislative items. Doing so would allow the UC to use referenda as a crutch when it feels like avoiding particularly divisive or hairy issues. Moreover, such polling might endow a false sense of legitimacy for the UC to take stands on political issues like foreign policy, domestic policy, or janitor wages—a distraction we have repeatedly lambasted the UC in the past...