The Sept. 25 SA senate meeting was great comedy if one enjoys sick humor. However, I didn’t enjoy the infighting and political games I witnessed there—it made me sick. It is my sincere belief that such infighting serves only to deliver up the SA as a sacrificial lamb to the Lowden Hall lions. Indeed, they must be laughing their butts off at this farce of a senate.

It is time to send a message to those coalition members who are screwing up our senate. I feel the only way to return the senate to the control of NIU students is to form a Progressive Student Alliance to replace these jokers with hard-working senators during the run-off election in January. The goals of such an alliance should include:

. A referendum in the April executive election declaring all political parties and coalitions in SA elections to be illegal, therby breaking up potential power blocks or at least making their task harder.

2. Sanctions should be taken against any organization which discriminates politically against its members.

3. Hold SA meetings in rooms where lots of people can sit and participate and see what the senate does.

4. Place controversial issues such as SCOPA on referendum for all students to vote on, not just a few senators who violate the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

5. Broadcast senate meetings on T.V. 8 for those who can’t come.

6. A referendum on the April Executive ballot to have recall elections for senators and executives (called for by petition) who demonstrate that they are unworthy to hold office.

In short, it is time to return the SA to the control of the students at large and inject some participatory democracy into the process. A body which allocates over $400,000 of our money shouldn’t be dominated by a coalition/junta of chattering primates who are light-years behind most students in political evolution.

Tom Rogers

Former SA Senator