One day a reporter from The Northern Star left the newsroom in search of student opinions regarding their campus representative body—the senate.

The question posed to students on campus during the “man on the street” interviews was: What has the Student Senate accomplished so far this year?

Several of the questioned students’ responses went as follows …

Don Johnson, sophomore—”It seems like complete confusion. They are a very poor example of a ruling body. If these are our leaders what is to come of this? What definitely can they say that they’ve accomplished?”

Karen Miller, senior—”They’ve had meetings.”

Mel Halverson, senior—”The quality they’ve added to student government in the three years I have been here is that of humor.”

Susan Gregory, freshman—”There doesn’t seem to be much organization and therefore not much seems to be accomplished. In fact, I haven’t even heard of our dorm representative.”

Steve Olteam, sophomore—”I have heard very little about the senate. I don’t think the have accomplished anything. They need a complete overhaul with better communication setup with the student body.”

An interesting set of findings, don’t you think? Findings that signal a definite problem and, even more importantly, the definite need for a solution.

Now if you’re a regular reader of the Star, and at this moment you are scratching your head with puzzlement because you don’t remember seeing such a report, let alone reading it, don’t worry. I forgot to mention one thing …

The above information gleaned from the “man on the street” interviews was printed in the Star on Friday, November 16, 1962.

Well, isn’t that something?

It’s rather humorous that this student poll could be pulled from a Star of yesteryear and fit so accurately into the scheme of events currently plaguing our very own Student Association Senate.

More interesting than that is the fact that this was not the only instance when reading back issues of the Star resulted in a distinct feeling of deja vu. Calls for the impeachment of the president, endless lack of quorums, resignations from disenchanted senators, calls for senate disbandment … when you pick up the paper next week, chances are pretty good that a similar story has appeared years before.

News stories, editorials, even letters to the editor could be pulled out of past editions of the newspaper and run in tomorrow’s paper without anyone noticing the difference.

Except for a few individuals—the well-publicized names of our illustrious president, vice president or treasurer and possibly a few of the more vocal senators—whose names would have to be updated, of course, I seriously doubt that anyone might notice an unknown name.

Even the quotes from senators of yesteryear probably would remain unquestioned because many of today’s senators never utter even as much as a peep during the regular Sunday fiascos, or take enough of an active part in senate workings to make themselves known. Not to mention the fact that most students couldn’t tell who are and who aren’t their representatives.

So what is the meaning behind all this?

Well, for students and all other observers of the weekly adventures of the Student Association Senate, the lesson to be learned is a real life example of the old 19th century proverb which history profs have touted throughout the years—History repeats itself. Seeing truly leads to believing.

And for the senate, don’t take your seemingly endless antics and bumblings to heart—you’re not the first and it appears you won’t be the last. The Sunday senate meetings which often provide more entertainment than evening sit-coms have been encountered before, and they can’t get any worse … or can they?