A few months ago, when I read about Associated Student Government’s resolution to support gun control, I questioned the relevance of such a proposal. ASG could have made better use of its time through pursuing other measures, as it does not have heavy control over the gun control debate. Through this resolution, ASG overstepped its boundaries without providing much tangible benefit.
The resolution, titled “Students Support Gun Control,” provides context of the events that influenced its drafting, mainly past examples of gun violence on college campuses, and uses them to justify its existence. The final wording of the resolution, which passed, is as follows: “Be it resolved … that the Northwestern student body supports … improved gun regulations and encourages the President and Congress to work together to form policies aim to reduce gun violence.” In addition, a bill establishing a five-person committee tasked with drafting an open letter encouraging a bipartisan compromise on gun control between Congress and the Executive Branch also passed.
The resolution originally supported President Barack Obama’s gun control policies directly, but this was later amended to a more general statement. This is likely due to opposition to the politically charged nature of the statement. This should not be surprising, because ASG is not the appropriate organization to be making political statements on behalf of the student body.
According to the resolution, ASG is justified in its actions because it is “the only democratically representative organization for students at Northwestern.” Although this is true to some extent, the four caucuses that make up ASG’s Senate and represent NU’s student groups, residential halls and colleges, off-campus, and Greek communities, are, upon inspection, largely apolitical groups serving apolitical functions. An apt analogy would be to compare ASG to my local government. When I evaluate my city councilors, I care about issues such as road repairs and tax levies. I certainly don’t care about their stance on controversial national issues such as abortion, euthanasia and certainly not gun control. Discussing these issues is extraneous in the scope of local politics because my city officials have no influence over these topics, and they have better things to do.
Similarly, ASG really has no pull in the gun control debate. First off, the resolution that was passed, by definition, does nothing. According to ASG’s website, resolutions require no action on the part of ASG officers. The aforementioned bill, however, does require action, as it creates a committee to compose an open letter encouraging bipartisan compromise on gun control, but its effect will likely be minimal. Even if the entire student body signed a petition supporting a compromise, it would be a drop in the bucket that is the debate over gun control. Besides, other groups on campus serve the NU student body’s political representation, including College Republicans and College Democrats.
It seems that many people at NU are fairly apathetic when it comes to student government. That’s why it is crucial that ASG is sensitive to its public perception. Resolutions like this can alienate students who think ASG should tackle more relevant tasks. It also confirms the preconceived biases of those who already believe our student government does nothing, the logic being, “The reason they’re doing this is because they don’t have anything better to do.” It’s certainly an unfair judgment, given the fact that ASG has undertaken major initiatives to improve the quality of student life, such as the electronic notification system for mail rooms and the newly launched website, CampusVoice. Unfortunately, to those who are unfamiliar with ASG, seeing their officers focusing on issues that are out of their reach, such as gun control, is sure to give them a bad first impression. The fact that controversy attracts attention will mean efforts like these will overshadow ASG’s more directly impactful accomplishments.
An unengaged student body is an apathetic one, and an apathetic student body will lead to a student body government that is less effective in addressing the issues of its constituents, thus leading to more apathy. It’s a vicious cycle that has already affected politics at a national level and by chasing the wrong issues, ASG might end up plagued by it as well.
Michael Wang is a McCormick freshman. He can be reached at [email protected]. If you want to respond publicly to this column, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected].
