The Student Government discussion concerning whether or not to open the gates on Greene Street — colloquially known as the "Gate-gate debate" in our newsroom — is far less important than anyone on Yik Yak thinks it is.
The relevant debate in student senate was over and done with before it blew up on social media. (After some debate recommended that they stay closed, but the ultimate decision rests with the city council. So, even if the senate resolved to open the gates, that resolution would only be marginally helpful in that initiative.)
Nonetheless, this conversation shows that the student body can attach themselves to issues given the right conditions. On both Twitter and Yik Yak in particular, the debate reached a number of USC students and alumni that is almost unprecedented in the history of recent SG initiatives.
The right conditions for this particular debate to explode was a close and hotly-contested student body vice presidential race, where one candidate, Brian Samples, wanted the gates open and the other, Lee Goble, wanted to keep them closed.
It is an understandable issue in a two-contestant race with each candidate on opposite sides. It allows for the unusual option of running on an contentious issue.
Samples in particular, whose proposal that the gates stay open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. did not get passed in senate, pushed the debate into the public spotlight because, he asserts, it is an example of SG not following the will of the students. (The “polls” he cites in favor of his argument are neither scientific nor representative. Those we have seen have been of the “upvote this if you agree that X should happen” variety, conducted on social media sites.)
His methodology might be wrong, but we have him to credit for pushing this issue to the forefront. We believe that these kinds of issues happen all the time in SG, and each simply needs a vocal advocate to put them in front of the students.
The problem, of course, is that not everything that happens in SG affects the whole campus directly.
Also, unlike Samples, who is trying to drum up support for his campaign, the average senator doesn’t need the voice of the students at his side in order to get what he or she is pushing for. All they need to do is convince their fellow senators that theirs is the right plan.
But what we’re seeing here is direct political participation from the student body on a level we haven’t seen in a long time.
And the more of those issues we can promote, the closer we’ll be to a dialogue between the student body and their SG representatives.