Student Governments Must Ditch National Politics

This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire

By Alex Rosado
Real Clear Wire

As politics have become increasingly nationalized and polarized, more and more local political bodies are being swept up by the news of the day to the detriment of their constituents. Nowhere is this more apparent than in student government associations (SGAs) – a new battleground for the culture war.

It’s becoming common for SGAs to hijack what should be apolitical offices that serve students. SGAs are being wrongly used for global affairs activism, blocking funding for groups that do not promote critical race theory, and adopting gerrymandering to skew the student body’s representation. In response, some students say that SGAs don’t work for them.

This lack of trust limits SGAs’ ability to make any real-world impact.

To strengthen their relevance and effectiveness, SGAs should remember why they exist – to ensure student welfare – and shift their energy to local campus issues like campus safety and academic policies rather than grandstanding national political agendas.

Local administrations like SGAs are what make America great. At least, that’s what Alexis de Tocqueville concluded in 1831 when he came from France to study American democracy. In his masterwork, “Democracy in America,” Tocqueville was blown away by how local administration could be a blueprint for free and fair societies everywhere, with America’s adoption of such ideas setting the country up for long-term success:

“In no country in the world do the citizens make such exertions for the common weal; and I am acquainted with no people which has established schools as numerous and as efficacious, places of public worship better suited to the wants of the inhabitants, or roads kept in better repair,” Tocqueville writes.

Major national events may capture students’ attention, but local governments most directly impact their lives. For many young Americans, SGAs offer an education in how local governments operate. They provide students an outlet for civic engagement and communal responsibility – experiences and habits that they can take with them when they graduate. Whether it be extending library hours or getting new dining options, students should be united to better their schools’ offerings, not be dissuaded because their colleagues play politics with other matters.

Tocqueville also warned against centralizing power, where a hyper-individualized population would undo its social cohesion and disconnect it from the issues most affecting it. SGAs distracted by broad nationalized political agendas have a harder time serving the needs of their individual students.

For example, look at what happened last April at the University of California, Davis, when their SGA passed a bill to divest their $20 million budget from companies with Israeli ties. This led to a campus frenzy and a Title VI complaint filed with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, accusing the school and its SGA of failing to protect Jewish students.

Throughout all of this, the SGA ignored the months-long shortage of hot water that had been plaguing student housing since February.

The UC Davis dilemma is a prime example of Tocqueville’s guidance: Local governments can betray their duties and breed discontent if they intentionally prioritize the wrong issues.

If SGAs do what they’re supposed to and focus on the needs of their immediate college environments, they’ll be able to maintain their autonomy and presence, avoid the dangers of overreach, and build the bonds required for trust and solidarity.

If they instead seek to align with national politics, they run the risk of allowing a “tyranny of the majority” when the largest group bullies smaller ones through legal means.

That’s what happened at St. Louis University in late 2023 when the SGA president booted their vice president for criticizing his support of Hamas. The common thread linking St. Louis, UC Davis, and similar SGA abuses is that personal affiliations and beliefs related to national politics bleed over into these institutions’ agendas. Thus, whatever stances those in charge take risk becoming the SGAs’ official positions.

SGAs shouldn’t become a platform for individual leaders’ personal political beliefs. Instead, they should be the arena where future leaders practice representative government. That entails developing an ability to tune out national politics and promote inclusive decision-making processes that encourage deliberation. The “tyranny of the majority” is avoidable by defining clear boundaries between personal expression and collective governance, a Tocquevillian characteristic SGAs should strive to achieve.

That’s not to say SGA members shouldn’t be allowed to speak up about current and national politics. They should just get their priorities straight and avoid placing their own personal beliefs over the most pressing student and campus concerns. As former U.S. Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill famously quipped, “All politics are local.” That knowledge will guide SGAs in doing their jobs more efficiently in the future.

The post Student Governments Must Ditch National Politics appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.