Average Dal Student :
How many people here have actually been a part of the only functional piece of this entire puzzle – the executive?

Pretty sure that this is the nicest thing that has ever been said about the DSU exec on punditry.

Also, to answer your question, out of the pundits past and present there are three former exec members. There are quite a few others who put in their two cents every now and again through their comments.

Mike Tipping :Vice President (Education) will now be called Vice President (Academic and External)
Nooooooo!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! say it ain’t so…SAY IT AIN’T SO!

I would come back to school just to vote for someone who would fix the electrical issues!

Hey, I agree with what you say except for the part where you call all punditry-ers self-righteous. I’m not here because I think reading this will do anything to change the union, I’m here because my thesis is due on Friday and I don’t want to work on it for the next 15 minutes.

That has to be the longest, most opinionated diatribe ever written by someone who doesn’t care.

Oh yeah, totally forgot about that! Bright guy, that Mark Coffin. Better go check the comments to make sure I agreed then, too.

There are many reasons why such a small percentage of the Dalhousie student population turns out for elections. The reasons that those deeply invested in the DSU believe are related to student apathy, student ignorance, and the fact that, at the best of times, voter turn out in any elections will hover around the 30% mark. The real reasons that voter turn out is so low is because, once again, no one cares. How many of the votes given in the DSU elections are by people being verbally abused as they wait in line for a morning coffee and forced to vote. There should be a section on the bottom of the voters page asking “do you actually know any of the candidates or did you randomly choose”, just to see how many people are choosing what is considered the democratically chosen, all-powerful executive at random.

The mere idea that there is “democracy” in student government is laughable. There are certain things that will never change about student government, whether it is junior high, high school, or university, the most popular kids get elected and nothing ever changes. Nothing is ever changing in the DSU because the people involved with the DSU were the ones involved with it the last year and the year before that and the year before that. There are no new ideas and even when there are new ideas there seems to be a contingent of students ensuring that they vote down any possibility of change or progression. Everyone would be deluding themselves to think that there are significant contributions from the council that truly effect the day to day lives of the average student. If you were to ask students what the student union does for them many would say “health plan”, “frosh week”, “ski trip”, “booster juice”, “St. Patty’s day in the Grawood”. It seems those within the DSU are less concerned about progression as they are about themselves and the fact that the DSU serves as a microcosm for municipal, provincial, or federal government. Unfortunately it is not in a way to learn about the functioning of government but a building where they can have an identity, albeit not a good one, and a voice. A place where the insignificant become significant and worthless opinions somehow have a value.

I’m actually embarrassed for all the people who try to treat the DSU election week as if it was the first Tuesday in November. It is comical that people are actually saying that a candidates gender will “swing the vote” or that the science or arts vote is a “powerful one”. This is not a presidential election where there are swing states ok, with around 10% of students voting each year it is difficult to find a faculty that is a “swing faculty” unless they occupy a lot of space within the DSU and therefore live in the “DSU world” or, if the elections committee is lucky, have an event in the McInnis room where they can be solicited for their vote.

This website serves as a perfect example of the self-righteousness felt by those within the DSU world. This website seems to be run and religiously followed by a group of people who have felt false significance and that their opinions have value. However, now as they enter the bright and sunny world outside the walls of the SUB they realize where they actually stand. They realize that all of those remarks, comments and hours of gossip aren’t embraced by an insatiable group of followers, and that if they are ever going to get that back they need to crawl back through the glass doors of the sub, hands full of mud, and start slinging…fast. How many people here have actually been a part of the only functional piece of this entire puzzle – the executive? I’m assuming few to none. Everyone else here for some reasons decides to waste their time, energy, and breath doing the easiest thing that a person can do – criticize and gossip. As much as everyone here would love to think that they are providing timely, informative, and in-depth (and any other buzz word that fits in a CNN commercial) coverage on the DSU elections they are not. They are providing biased, embarrassing, pontificating opinions on a topic that, in the end, doesn’t matter.

Not only are those involved with this website guilty of this, so are the councilors and those that sit at council. Council only provides one more forum for insignificant pedants who are more concerned with hearing themselves talk than the actual students they are representing. I have heard from the lost souls who have the unfortunate fate of mandatory attendance to council meetings. Their opinion? “the most devastating moment is when my laptop dies” or “the worst part is that I know I’ll never have those 3 hours of my life back”.

This is the true DSU. This is the student government that provides a selected few a nice resume booster or a good job afterwards, drowns the dreams of those who think they can actually helps students and provides self-worth where it seems to be needed the most. Luckily for the average student outside the DSU….no one cares.

How has that ACTUALLY never materialized as a campaign promise? Seriously!

that’s the plan anyway.

Maybe next they’ll let us women wear pants to class!

As as a current female on Sexton campus (current on both fronts, by the way) I would really love to be able to heat up my tea and toast some bread at the same time without having lighting a fire in the middle of the Alumni Lounge.

For those non-Sexton student who aren’t in the know: a toaster and microwave that can be plugged in at the same time without blowing a fuse would be a legitimate improvement to Sexton campus.

The Sextant ran an article about a gay guy on Sexton this semester, so transgender is the logical next step.

Yes folks, Sexton has women, and homosexuals. It’s like we’re moving into the 18th century or something. Maybe next we’ll get a toaster and microwave that we can use at the same time!

Bwahahahahahahaha. I almost spit my drink out all over my computer. Intentional or non-intentional omission (forgetting “fitness”? comeonnnnnn) that was probably one of the most hilarious things I’ve read all day (and I say this as a former female Sexton student… “former” referring to being on Sexton Campus. Not the female part).

Nooooooo!