My response to the other side

So, to recap...
Here's what the other side might say as to why elections are 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?
--Or maybe they think 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 of BYUSA should therefore vote to express their opinion. Highly democratic.
--It also teaches the student leaders about important government principles of being able to appeal to many people and represent a constituency.
--Elections act as a way to advertise BYUSA and give it publicity.
--The presidency choose which issues to focus on and promote during BYUSA and student government meetings.




Now, why don't these arguments hold water?


First of all, yes it is important for a student "government" to be founded on democratic governmental principles. However, could BYUSA be in fact misnamed? Is such an organization really a government? Hardly. It is meant to be a representative for the students, but it really has no significant governmental power at the university. It is more like a lobby. Therefore it should not be run like a government.
This leads into the second point. In a lobby group, the lobby represents the interests of their people to the government. BYUSA operates in a similar way. It represents the student body to the administration of BYU. Shouldn't students care who represent them to the university government? Yes, that's a valid point. But this is a little bit different than voting for the US President. He has real power to decide 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. They merely transport the student body's input. And if there's a significant problem, it will be transported to the university, regardless of who BYUSA president is. The university still decides on the policy. BYUSA is not the government. And that's why we shouldn't elect them like a government, and we shouldn't elect them based on platforms they really have no control over instituting. Now, what about their platform points that they do have power to institute (such as activities or random promotions)? I'll save that point for another post, and I'll hopefully use examples.
Response to point 3: BYUSA still would represent a 'constituency', even if they weren't elected. The students in BYUSA would still get that practice. But there is no point for them to waste effort on elections, when the different candidates have no real power over policies.
Response to point 4: true. But there are much better ways to publicize BYUSA.
Response to point 5: Yes, the president can try to act as a dictator and decide which policies to discuss in meetings and which are the most important to bring to the attention of the university. But you know, he's not a dictator. He can't control everything like that. If the student body has concerns, those concerns will be brought up in meetings. BYUSA officials will naturally spend time discussing the most important concerns, regardless of who the president is and what his particular biases are.
Well, my computer's about to die. See you next time.