Most UF students are by now familiar with the ongoing situation on campus. If you’ve read the disturbing ways the Swamp Party maintains its control over student leadership — as reported widely in the Alligator and the Fine Print — it’s not pleasant.
Ahead of us, there are two roads. The only remaining question: Which road will we take?
For years, we’ve been hearing of how fraternity members have been systematically exploited for the System’s benefit. The latest example was mentioned in a letter to the editor in Friday’s paper, aptly titled, “Swamp’s intimidation tactics are reprehensible.”
Am I being too idealistic in believing that even the most apathetic student gets slightly disturbed by these reports?
This is why we have to take the road less traveled. UF students are far too compassionate, gutsy and courageous to sit back and watch as details of corruption within student leadership emerge regularly. A fresh approach is needed for fixing this crisis.
With all due respect to minority parties, it’s highly dubious to expect genuine change to come through running for Student Government. It’s almost impossible to rival the System’s intimidation techniques. And for those who are waiting for the UF administration to voluntarily address these issues, why not dream bigger and expect Gov. Chris Christie to address global corruption?
What we need is a nonpartisan group, not a new political party, that will bring a fresh approach in addressing our pitiful campus culture. The goals are simple: to demand ethics, transparency and democracy to govern every aspect of our campus.
This nonpartisan group, not dependent on SG funds, should be modeled around credible human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International. This organization would perform two functions that neither the media nor the government — in our case, the Alligator and the UF administration, respectively — can do sustainably: raise awareness by investigating abuses of power while also mobilizing the larger UF community to put pressure on responsible parties.
There’s a reason our state and national politics suck. Just go back to the campus culture our politicians were brought up in.
The extent to which we can reform the climate of student leadership at UF is equal to the extent we have already nipped the bud of corruption from growing in Tallahassee, or worse yet, Washington, D.C.
The week after Spring Break, I will personally meet with anyone who is similarly disturbed by our student leadership’s moral decline. Since I’m a senior and have few campuswide networking skills, I look forward to a fresh set of minds and hearts — not driven by egos or pursuit of resume titles, but rather by genuine passion — taking the mantle of ethical leadership at UF.
[Zulkar Khan is a UF microbiology senior. His column appears on Tuesdays. A version of this column ran on page 7 on 2/25/2014 under the headline “Fresh approach needed to tackle corruption"]
