BYUSA Elections—Yes or No?

Where Are All The Supporters?

Recently I put as my Facebook status, “Yo friends, I need some input here... Can you think of some pros to having BYUSA elections?” I have never been a fan of the elections, and I wanted to gather some ideas as to why people do support them. Well, the responses came in—and with them an amusing puzzle. Everybody but one person thought it would be funny to give me sarcastic responses, such as telling me that they just couldn’t think of a single pro to the elections. Or they’d say stuff like, “It helps to teach people how governments shouldn't work” or that it enables students to “randomly [be] coopted into campaign videos.” Only one person tried to offer a serious pro, and I could tell they had trouble thinking of a good one that could reasonably be used as an explanation for the existence of the elections.

            My question is, where were the responses from all the people who support the elections? The supporters certainly seem vocal about spreading the word all over campus during election season. Why were they conspicuously absent on my status comments? Perhaps there just weren’t any who saw my status. A total of 2480 students voted in the final election this March. Out of almost 33,000 students, this means that about 7.5% of students voted. (Stats courtesy of BYUSA 2010 Elections and Y Facts).

            But that overestimates that true proportion of students who actually support the idea of electing student body officers. It’s impossible to put a number on it, but there is likely a portion of students who vote only because they know one of the candidates. With these numbers, it becomes more understandable to me why I only got negative responses to my status. If 40 people saw my status, then probably only 3 of those actually bothered to vote in the final election. So maybe they just didn’t feel like being the lone voice on my status supporting the elections, or maybe they just didn’t feel that strongly about them, or maybe they’re religiously opposed to commenting on Facebook. Maybe it was just some other reason. The fact remains, though, that most people don’t care to vote in the elections.


Election Unpopularity

But there has to be good reason why the BYUSA elections are so unpopular. BYU is full of very smart students. Why don’t they care enough about the elections to vote? And why are so many students not just apathetic toward them but are actually downright against them? There must be rational, intelligent reasons for these trends. Why should or shouldn’t students support BYUSA elections? That is what I’d like to delve into in the rest of this essay.

First, though, can I honestly say that there are a lot of students who are against the elections? Perhaps not. Maybe the 8 people who left negative comments on my status are just the vocal minority. But it is also likely that those 8 could be representative of wider opinions. The point is that dislike toward the elections does exist, in addition to the general apathy.

One view of the elections was summed up pretty well recently in a tweet by dzhonatan: "I'm sure @BYUSA presidency is great leadership training. But I have no reason to care which pair of candidates gets it. #BYUSA2010." So does it really matter who leads BYUSA? Or will the student body fare basically the same regardless of who is president? Perhaps it would be wise to look into what exactly BYUSA is and what the role of the presidency is.

Some BYUSA Lore

“The BYU Student Service Association is the premier student-run association on campus. BYUSA is dedicated to serving the BYU student body and advising the BYU administration” (BYUSA FAQ, par. 1). BYUSA was originally formed in 1988 in an effort to reorganize the Associated Students of Brigham Young University (ASBYU), affectionately dubbed Another Stupid Bureaucracy You're Under (hat-tip to my dad for that nugget. He also said the university finally changed the ASBYU to BYUSA the fall after that nickname popped up, which may just have been a coincidence). According to BYUSA’s charter, the goal was to modify the ASBYU to be more in line with the spirit of the university. The rather long and informative (but interesting) history can be read here. But the basic story is that BYUSA's new charter heavily stressed its intended role as a service association. "With its focus on service, cooperation, and leadership, the association would benefit from a level of cooperation and trust with the administration not possible between adversarial organizations." (BYUSA charter). Its other main purpose was to advise, although from my reading of the charter, it seems that the service aspect was indeed the number one priority. The Student Advisory Council was also formed as the approved method of student input.

BYUSA’s charter also specifies the duties of its president and vice president, who are elected once a year: “The president directs the work of the presidency, meets with university administrators in an advisory function as needed and acts as the official student spokesperson at the university. . . . The executive vice president (EVP) assists the president by coordinating the work of the other presidency members and chairing the Student Advisory Council (SAC). As chair of SAC, the EVP sets the agenda for council meetings and reports the council’s recommendations through appropriate channels to university administrators. The EVP organizes the members of the council and other students into committees, appointing chairpersons and assigning duties” (BYUSA charter).

Is There A Point to Who's in the Presidency?

Reflecting on this basic description BYUSA, I don't think it really matters who is president and vice-president. Students will always benefit from quality activities and service opportunities. And most candidates will likely represent the student body and the BYUSA organization in exactly the same way as is always done. In recent memory (or in all of recorded history), does a specific BYUSA presidency stand out to you for some great act? Of course not. They all do the same basic job and have the same basic values. Well, as long as the president is not a terrorist or a loony. But that's what the screening interview and application process is for. So, as far as the popularity contest goes, who needs it? It's just a pointless waste of time and effort.


***  Included here is a timeline of events associated with the elections. It shows just how in-depth the whole process is.

Anyway, the principle of student similarity is even expressed in point four of BYUSA’s charter: “The great majority of students at BYU are supportive of gospel ideals and university policies and procedures.  They want to join with the Church and university leadership in building a great university.  Therefore, a complex system of ‘checks and balances’ is not necessary.  Rather, a system which can be responsive to changing needs of the campus community is sufficient.” The BYUSA presidencies through the years will more or less have the same basic values and goals. And given the limited amount of real decision-making power they hold, why even bother holding an election between two candidates that will more or less have the same effect on the university? As the charter said, “a system which can be responsive to changing needs of the campus community is sufficient.” In other words, a system of application and university approval, without the unnecessary elections, should be sufficient.

Presidential Powers and Initiatives

However, not everyone would agree with this simplified argument. It might be argued that the BYUSA president does have real power. But is that power significant enough that all students should care which candidate is elected? Now would be a good time to examine precisely what powers the presidency has. Included below are the five official duties of the presidency—and I would argue that the student body likely does not care and cannot sufficiently discriminate between candidates for points 1-4. Also, I think these first four duties could be skillfully accomplished by anyone the administration sees fit to appoint: “(1) to provide the association with vision and administration, (2) to develop and teach organizational guidelines and procedures which assist the association in accomplishing its mission, (3) to budget and monitor the association’s use of funds, (4) to assure the continuity and integrity of the association by evaluating its activities, and developing future leadership, (5) to determine the programs and activities which the association will provide during its administration” (BYUSA charter). The only real power the presidency has is its control over point five, the planning of programs and activities.

So what sort of plans does a typical presidency have for these area 5? Let’s take a look at the current presidential initiatives for the year: “(1) A BYU Experience…for YOU—Create online database of involvement opportunities available at BYU for you. Appoint volunteers in off-campus housing who are experts on this database, and can help you find a place to contribute your individual gifts. (2) ‘Y’ the Wilk—Collaborate with administration to enhance the student experience in the Wilkinson Center, making it a place where students will want to stay and spend their time because it is inviting in its appearance, services, and overall BYU spirit. (3) Unsung Heroes—Regularly recognize students for their service and influence, giving them the added boost to move forward with their great work as well as motivate others to pursue the same lifestyle of selfless service. (4) Semester Value—Propose a Christ-like quality that students can work together to develop. Through posting student’s experiences about their personal development we hope this common goal can help unify campus. (5) Laptop Chargers—Have rentals available on campus just in case you forget yours at home :)” (BYUSA Presidential Initiatives 2009-2010).

Now, let’s address these initiatives. A database of involvement opportunities is a cool idea, but does it require BYUSA’s president behind it to become a reality? Could it not be just as easily proposed by a random student volunteer? If the Student Advisory Council thinks it is an idea worth pursuing, then it will be pursued—regardless of who proposes it. Granted, the president of BYUSA could certainly push the idea more and give it more time during meetings, but the fact remains: if it is a good idea, it will be proposed and thoughtfully considered and likely succeed; if it is not the best idea, the council simply won’t spend time on it. The same goes for the ideas behind the other four initiatives. They are all general ideas that do not require this certain presidency to come to fruition. Consider the hypothetical case if this presidency had not won the election: these same ideas could still have been brought to the attention of administrators within BYUSA or the SAC by the losing candidates or by other students, at which point these ideas are examined by a qualified committee of interested students and could thereby become reality. Good will inevitably win out. Even though it can be argued that different presidencies do have very different agendas, just because one presidency wins the election does not mean that BYUSA is constrained to the winner’s agenda.


Other Reasons for Elections?

So it seems that it doesn’t matter so much who presides over BYUSA. But perhaps there are totally different reasons why elections are important. The single positive comment on my Facebook status said: “How 'bout this: it alerts some students to BYUSA's existence and lets them find out what it actually is. I know last year I never bothered to find out what BYUSA was even for until I saw the election tables and I read about it in one of their flyers.” Maybe having elections is a good idea because of all the publicity and propaganda that gets distributed across campus. I would argue, though, that there are better ways to publicize BYUSA and its future goals and programs, ways that don’t revolve around unnecessary elections. Besides, many people don’t stop to talk to the supporters at the election tables. I know I try to avoid them. For example, If BYUSA wanted to let freshmen know what it is, it could sponsor an info fair at the dorms. Or for the general population, publishing an innocent article in the Daily Universe about BYUSA’s current programs would probably reach more people and be a less controversial method of publicity. Not to mention a whole lot easier than organizing a whole election.

So why else might the elections exist, if who wins is not that important? Perhaps the administration views the election process an important part of the whole idea of student government. I mean, what's the point of having a student "government" if it does not make some attempt to incorporate democratic principles? Well, yes, it is important for a student government to be founded on democratic governmental principles. But BYUSA is not a student government. (It even says so in the charter, in point 1 of the historical information). But people might not realize what this implies. BYUSA is meant to be a university-sponsored organization to help the students. It also acts as a representative for the students, but it really has no significant governmental power at the university. It is more like a lobby, representing the interests of its members to the real government. Therefore, BYUSA should not be run like a government, and there is no need to elect its officials, who have no real governing power.

Maybe, though, it could be argued that elections are helpful because they force candidates to appeal to the masses. Therefore the elected president and vice president actually represent the voices of many students. If elections were done away with, student applicants for those posts would likely just be chosen by a committee. I can see how that might make some people uncomfortable. Some students might feel like they had no say in who their representative to the university is. The solution is to hold a vote. Everyone who cares about the leadership and chosen initiatives of BYUSA should therefore vote to express their opinion. Highly democratic. This is important because it helps students feel like they are not repressed by the big administrative bureaucracy and that the university regards the student body’s opinions on an even footing as its own. My response to this would be that students need to understand that the university respects their opinions regardless of the avenue. Granted, it is harder for the university to reject the BYUSA presidency’s initiatives because those were voted for by lots of people. It’s easier to reject some random proposal that a single student brings up in a SAC meeting. But if the issue was important enough to make it on the presidency’s platform, it is likely that it will be brought to the administration’s attention again and again until people are satisfied.

And besides, shouldn't all students just naturally care who represents them to the university government? Well, in this case, maybe it doesn’t matter. In the words of another sarcastic response to my Facebook status’s plea for pros, “K, it fools the students into thinking they have part in the decision making process.” Voting for BYUSA presidencies is a little bit different than voting for the US president. The US president has real power to decide important policy. BYUSA doesn't. It doesn't matter who the representatives are for BYUSA. All they do is act as a vehicle to transport ideas from students to the university. They don't decide what course of policy action to take regarding those ideas, at least when it comes to significant issues. They merely transport the student body's input. They are one step, just one facet, in a large array of communication methods throughout the university (see figure below).




If there's an important problem at BYU, it will be communicated to the university, regardless of who the BYUSA presidency is. The university administration still decides on the resulting policy. In fact, if BYUSA’s leaders were chosen strictly by the administration, and the decision was not influenced by a popular vote, the results might even be better—who’s to say that random students can vote for a better candidate than the university can choose? After all, this is BYU we’re talking about, not some totalitarian regime full of corrupt citizens. Students don’t really need to worry so much about who their representative is.

When it comes to lesser issues, though, such as student programs or activities, the BYUSA presidency does have some measure of control over which programs are emphasized for the year. However, students still need not be too concerned with who leads BYUSA. Good programs will result, regardless of who leads the organization. Also, as mentioned earlier, if there are good programs that that are not embodied in the presidency’s specific initiatives, they can still be proposed, considered, and implemented. Thus, despite the elected presidency’s push to accomplish their initiatives, BYUSA programs will not likely be confined to those certain points.

Now, perhaps another argument for the elections might be made—one regarding their ability to teach the student leaders about important government principles of being able to appeal to many people and represent a constituency. Yes, those are good principles, but again, BYUSA is not a government. And even so, its leaders still would represent a 'constituency' even if they weren't elected. The students in BYUSA would still get that practice of acting as representatives.


Conclusion

Overall, I get the feeling that it’s hard to come up with good, solid reasons why the BYUSA elections are a good idea. Simply put, the elections really seem to waste students’ time and efforts, all for inconsequential gains. I think it’s time that we seriously considered doing away with the whole practice. In fact, a student body referendum on the usefulness of the elections might be a good idea, just to help the university gauge what the public’s views are on the matter. Then after some more studies are conducted into the consequences of doing away with the elections, a quality, informed decision can and should be made.