End of Year SG Grades

The Eagle used to give out letter grades to all of the executives and the Senate at the end of the school year to assess their performance. This year, they took the easy road and simply wrote an editorial, without letter grades. I can't say that I blame them. Grading something like this is pretty subjective, and completely arbitrary. But my blog has no problem being subjective or arbitrary, so here I go:

President Andy MacCracken: B+
If I had been President, there are some things that I would have done differently. But overall, Andy did a pretty good job. As The Eagle noted, he took student input very seriously, even when not much input was offered. His opposition to the Super Loop is evidence of that. He also took a very positive step toward getting a student Metro discount with the AU ID-Smartrip thing. However, he is still missing a defining accomplishment. He was never able to find the one issue that truly resonates with people and make it his own. That said, the one thing that I have learned in everything that I have been involved in is that it is nearly impossible to make big changes in one year. That would have been the best argument for Andy being re-elected had he decided to run again. Nate Bronstein (Andy's hand-picked successor) will have a unique opportunity to carry the MacCracken momentum forward.

Vice President Alex Prescott: C
Not having a Founder's Day Ball is what he will always be remembered for. But I am not going to give him an F, because not all of the blame can be placed upon him for that fiasco. And, as The Eagle also noted, most students were happy with KPU and SUB this year, which fall under his leadership.

Former Comptroller Matt Handverger: B-
The only thing he ever did wrong was misreport his hours on his timesheet. That is not ok, but it is also not the end of the world.

Comptroller Alan Chang: A
He's a Comptroller and he didn't fuck anything up. What more can you ask for?

Secretary Colin Meiselman
Since I used to work for him, I will maintain some journalistic integrity and refrain from giving him a grade. I will say that he didn't really do anything spectacular (except for the AUSG recruiter, which I still think is awesome), but his goal of streamlining communications is an admirable one, and something that I think incoming Secretary Hiebel can make work. But I still don't like the website.

The Undergraduate Senate: F
Sorry guys. First of all, let me say that of all the grades, this one is the most arbitrary and subjective. Over the last year, we have had two Senates, four Speakers, and countless different members. Assigning a grade to such a diverse group is pretty much a complete waste of time, but that's what I do. The bottom line is this: the only time anybody payed attention to the Senate was when they were doing something that was ultimately pointless (impeachment, election certification, budget). At no point did they ever unite behind an issue that actually mattered to students. Certainly there are many, many individual Senators that do great work on behalf of the students. I recognize that. But as a body, it is dysfunctional, and does not serve a sound purpose. Way too much time is spent on amending the bylaws and "debating how to debate" (credit: Seth Rosenstein). Not enough time was spent on the countless issues that make an impact on the lives of students. My advice (not that you asked for it): Quit taking yourselves so seriously (you are in fucking college you don't need to where a suit all of the time!), figure out a way to make the rules so that they don't need to be changed every week, and continue having the same heated, passionate debates that you always do, but focus on issues that we give a shit about.