To the editor,

At some point in the distant past, student government used to welcome the involvement of average students. If you were unhappy with the way things were going on campus, if you didn’t like the parking system or the financial aid process, if you didn’t think it was right that student leaders never did anything about the dead week or the sexual orientation referendums that the student body passed by overwhelming majorities, you could pick up an application in the student government office, find a running mate, collect enough signatures and run for student body president.

You may not necessarily have had a very good chance of being successful. But, it was your student government, and you could always put your money where your mouth was and try to make a difference at OU.

However, that all changed when Jason Robison got into Student Congress during the unpublicized, uncontested “elections” which occurred at the end of last year. He’s authored the “nobody but us” rule which says, in effect, that if you wanted to run for student body president this year you’d better have already been involved in student government because “nobody but us” can run anymore.

It’s a sad day when people who were never elected start telling the student body that they’re going to have to pick their leaders from among them because they’ve somehow gotten “dibs” on everything in the future by keeping the filing period a secret.

In the first five sentences of its constitution, the student association claims three times that students can participate in “any level” of student government. But, I ask you, is that really the case? If the average student can’t even hold an office, then does that office really even represent them anymore?

Nicholas Harrison

JD/MBA student