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The end of the semester is a difficult time for college students. Like shopping mall Christmas displays on Halloween, finals talk seems to begin earlier every year. Meanwhile, prospective graduates must negotiate seemingly endless forms and exit interviews, all in an effort to, finally and at long last, procure one large piece of paper. It’s quite understandable that tension is running high among students.
However, no amount of stress excuses an adult from acting like an adult, even when it comes to distributing next year’s student tickets for football and men’s basketball. Sure, the guy who cuts you off on the freeway and almost causes an accident might have a legitimate reason to hurry, but he’s still rude for not signaling the turn. Likewise, whatever the difficulties in transitioning from one Student Government Association administration to the next, no coordination problem justifies behaving like feuding beauty queens.
The childish behavior or “controversy” surrounding this year’s annual Ticket Tailgate is a pathetic waste of students’ time. It basically amounted to a turfwar – President-elect Darrel Messer, a senior engineering student, involved himself in the ticket distribution event, which appeared to have some execution problems. Still, this move was really just stepping on the toes of event coordinator and current SGA Chief of Staff Greg Virgin, a senior political science major. This minor conflict could have easily been dispensed with in a private, professional manner. Instead, Messer allegedly contacted a local news outlet and committed a series of breaches in decorum and courtesy, all in order to draw attention to the event.
The outgoing SGA administration generally has been a reliable advocate for the student body; tripping at the finish line surely isn’t the way they intended to end the race. Likewise, if Messer was attempting in his gallant rescue of student sports fans to gain the favor of the student body, the advisable first step would have been to avoid looking like a petulant child.
The Ticket Tailgate event was ultimately a success, whatever its execution problems. Hopefully, any difficulties that occurred this year will be corrected by next April. However, the event itself is fairly minor in scope and scale. The bigger issue is ensuring standards of behavior for incoming and outgoing administrations. Surely the president- and vice presidents-elect have a great deal to learn, and are eager to hit the ground running. A healthy dialogue with the sitting executive officers could never be more important than now, while Messer and his colleagues prepare for their year in office. Straining the relationship between these two groups of student leaders when one has so much to teach the other, and so little time to do it, is just squandering a valuable resource.
Moreover, as president, Messer’s duty is to serve the student interest, not elevate his public image. By contacting local television station WHAS 11, he fanned the flames of what should have been only a spark. While mistakes are inevitable from a new administration, this was just bad form. The election is over, and this was election-season politics.
Real governance doesn’t need a television crew, just well-executed, innovative ideas.
