The Student Association is dead, and we are the ones who killed it.

For those that don’t know, the SA is the elected body which allocates about $1 million of our student fee money. In a perfect world, the SA also advocates students’ rights against the bureaucracy of higher education.

Let’s look at why the student body has caused the SA to lose all its credibility, and why, in effect, the SA is dead.

The SA’s problems don’t begin with this year’s screwed up senate elections. No, they run much deeper.

It all begins with the suitcase college syndrome. Students flock to the suburbs each weekend, avoiding involvement.

The next problem is the general apathy of the “myself only” generation. “I don’t have time to get involved at NIU” is the mantra of these self-absorbed simpletons. Odds are the things that are making these people too busy are Nintendo, bar-hopping and beer.

Which all leads to the next problem—too few candidates. The few that do run are motivated, but often have the “boy, this would look good on my resume” gleam in their eye. However, part of the reason four of the last five SA elections have been delayed or voided is that there are not enough candidates in each district to fill the ballot. NIU students, or at least the 3 percent who actually vote, are not the brightest in the world, and an empty ballot only serves to confuse them. Hey, if the SA can’t run an election right, how can they run the student government?

The voter turnout is inevitably poor. The meetings run much too long and the senators are ill-informed. As a result, the senators stop showing up.

Another factor which has killed the SA is the yearly power struggle between the SA executive staff, which only serves to create gridlock.

The backstabbing which goes on the second floor of the Holmes Student Center has been well-documented, as has the corruption. Just last semester, one adviser made hundreds of dollars of personal phone calls and then proceeded to deny it until confronted. Another adviser allegedly attempted to blackmail her landlord in a dispute with yet another staff member.

It’s like the executive staff is all dress rehearsing for the real world, running roughshod over each other in a mad scramble to get to the top. Just one question—the top of what?

After all of the utter incompetence and immaturity displayed by past SAs and the apathy generated by the student body, how can anyone, especially the NIU administration, take the SA seriously anymore? Obviously, they can’t.

The administration looks at what they’re dealing with and laughs long and hard, knowing the students are clueless.

Actually, who can blame the administration? Looking at the apathetic student body at NIU, why should they care what students think—after all, students don’t think.

Of course, no one should condemn the current SA administration yet. They’ve swept out all of the old trash and have a new perspective.

But as the new semester begins, the SA is dead and the student body is the murderer. Let’s hope the new administration will perform a little CPR.