Although I transferred out of AU, I have been bombarded with news and updates about SG. While many students at AU don’t highly regard SG, I spent all three of my semesters proudly serving in the senate. Lately, plenty of my friends down in D.C. are upset to hear that the Founders’ Day Ball has been postponed indefinitely. While the postponement of AU’s one great tradition is rather regrettable, it inevitably comes to the point where we begin to ask ourselves why this happened.
Is this at the fault of Alex Prescott, the vice president of the SG, for lack of oversight? Is it Founders’ Day Director Jacque Martin’s fault for not signing the contracts so close to the event? Is it planet Earth’s fault for giving the nation’s capital its biggest snowstorm in over two centuries? Or is it the fault of the Senate, who not only has the ability to ask any SG official to come into the illustrious chamber of Kogod 118 for questioning regarding their duties at any point during the semester, but also gave Martin an extra $10,000 of extra SG funds with no questions asked?
Or, we can focus on what to do now instead of dwelling on the past. Mistakes have obviously been made, but calls for questioning and the feelings of anger ex post facto do not and will not help. This is a lesson I believe most of us learned after the impeachment early in the fall semester. The students of AU have the right to be upset, but this will not turn back time and allow the Founders’ Day Ball to happen on its scheduled day. I’m pretty sure if we could all turn back time at any point of our choosing, none of us would prioritize on making sure the 2010 Founders’ Day Ball happens at what most students would think is a reasonable date.
Yes, there is and was some disorganization, and yes, people in the SG have made mistakes. What we should not be doing is forming a witchhunt in order to get answers that will not change the past. This will waste the time of Prescott and Martin, who are as of now in the process of making sure AU will throw yet another successful Founders’ Day Ball, albeit a bit late. If the students of AU would still like to see Prescott, Martin and/or the Undergraduate Senate face questions after the Founders’ Day Ball is over, accommodations should be made to allow questioning to happen.
Maybe the student body should try to focus on the silver lining. A later Founders’ Day Ball means closer to, if not during, spring. Instead of freezing outside of Bender Arena like every other year, perhaps the attendees can take a moment and smell the roses.
Mark Bittner Rutgers, 2012
