Student Government exists primarily to give the student body some control over what areas of student life should receive funding and which should not.
The existing structure that holds the core of SG together is a functional concept. Senators are elected as representatives of their particular college and decide on what initiatives or student organization programs deserve a portion of a huge Student Activities fund.
Existing programs like Carolina Closet and Carolina Cab are useful and thoughtful programs, conceived by students, put into action by students and used by students.
It should be said that SG also does wacky and wasteful things, like trying to erect a statue of our beloved Cocky, lest we forget what our own mascot looks like.
But, all in all, SG works. It might not work as well as it could, but the tools are there to get the job done.
So, if it does its job, why does the student body patently refuse to care about virtually everything SG does? To put it in another, more specific way: on a campus with 30,000-some-odd students, why is the prospect of getting 5,000 total votes for the SG Executive candidates something to hope for?
Because, put simply, it’s day-to-day purpose is incomprehensible.
Petty arguments concerning how SG runs itself take up an embarrassing amount of time and would prompt any curious student peeking into the Senate chambers to run swiftly away for fear of slipping into a boredom-coma.
SG members themselves lament their lack of communication with the student body year after year. Every time Student Body elections come around, one can be quite sure that each candidate is going to promise to make SG meaningful to the student body.
At least in my experience, those promises generally come to nothing and are given half-sincerely at the best of times. Either that, or the job of connecting the students to SG is simply impossible.
None of this invalidates my original point that SG performs its particular function.
SG does useful things every once in a while and keeps student organizations funded so they can put on cool events. This is their job, and, apparently, they can do it without the majority of the campus either knowing or caring that they exist.
Whether this is a drawback or something good is up for debate. It would be nice if spots for student senate were competitive. But there is something redeeming in the fact that the only people there are the people who want to be there.
The existence of those motivated people who genuinely wish to serve the student body is the reason why SG, in the end, fulfills its purpose no matter how many people know it.