By Ben Okenge, Contributing Opinion
I have walked by the front of the Student Center in the past, peered into the windows where the Executive Cabinet (EC) members’ offices are and noticed EC members on their phones. Clearly, I could have caught these EC members at the wrong time and incorrectly assumed they were slacking off, as they could have been doing EC business on their phones, such as responding to emails, scheduling meetings, contacting vendors, etc. However, as a result of situations like these, my doubt and the doubt of my fellow peers when discussing our EC’s work on campus is at times warranted.
“At Asbury, people know how to play the game and do what it takes to get elected,” said Jackson Thomas, former Visionary class president. “They are able to stay in office without having to do much real work — doing more for their friend group than for the whole campus.”
Since being at Asbury, I have not heard any updates about what our EC is actually working on to make our university a better place to be a student. While it has incorporated things like suggestion boxes and listening tours, that is not enough. There are clear issues with communication between the cabinet and our campus, and something needs to be done. After nearly two years of being a student at Asbury, the only change that I have heard of as a direct result of our EC’s influence through collaborating with Asbury Student Congress (ASC) has been extending campus post office hours.
I have loved my experience at Asbury so far, but to say that it has been so good that my main concern is extending CPO hours is simply ridiculous. Surely, the cabinet, along with ASC, has done more than what I am aware of, but as a student, I believe we all deserve to know what is going on with our student leaders. This also opens up problems of accountability because there is no way for us to know or measure EC’s effectiveness.
The other issue I have is that you do not necessarily need to be a part of EC to make the changes you want on campus, so I question if it’s necessary. In such a small school, we have nearly unlimited access to our faculty and administration. I know numerous students who have personally approached the administration to make the changes they desire, and these processes have been swifter than if the students had worked through the cabinet. This makes it difficult to take the cabinet seriously.
The lack of respect for EC is also a byproduct of the election process, which can look more like a popularity or flashy-poster contest than people actually putting together an effective campaign and making realistic promises.
I believe that our Executive Cabinet needs to make some drastic changes if the members are to earn the respect and trust of students. This all begins with the election process: Students need to vote more seriously to ensure that we are being led by the best candidate rather than the one with the most friends. EC could also begin sending out periodic emails to keep us updated on what it has specifically accomplished and hopes to accomplish over certain increments of time. Finally, we could get rid of the scholarships EC members receive to ensure that they are doing work for the right reasons, just like most other types of student leaders on campus.
We should never doubt if our cabinet members want their positions for the accompanying scholarships, office space or resume-building purposes. We need a cabinet that we are absolutely certain is full of people who genuinely care about improving the student experience at Asbury, and I believe that this goal is not too lofty to achieve.
