Thank goodness it is over!

Now that I am done with ASUW Student Senate forever, I can be completely and brutally honest about what I think about Senate. So here goes…

The two hours I spent in HUB 309 (nearly) every Tuesday evening for the past academic year were certainly illuminating. I have learned a bit about parliamentary procedure, legislative language, and the workings of the ASUW. But what was really illuminated throughout these months was the precise degree to which Student Senate is made up of a bunch of stultiloquious wankers.

Seriously! I do not think I have ever witnessed such self-obsessed and pathetically earnest pseudo-political masturbation in all my years. People in senate really need to learn to shut the fuck up and laugh a little. The degree to which obnoxiously and comically serious Greek types take the workings of senate seriously is really sad. There is so much potential for laughter and self-effacing joy in Senate, but so little of the potential is realized.

A senator emeritus said to me at the beginning of the year “Raz, it is not worth trying to change senate. Senate is a big institutional pit that follows its own pathetically humorless logic and will continue to do so long after it outlives us.” Of course I scoffed at her pessimism, but after nine months, I must concede that she is right.

But while serving my sentence, I accomplished a few things that the league should be proud of: I frequently mocked the proceedings in such a way that my comments were both effective and subversive. I wrote and successfuly passed two pieces of legislation relating (as ASUW legislation should) to campus affairs. One piece of legislation was a commendation for the late professor and director of CHID, James Clowes. The other was a piece of legislation endorsing the HCL’s All Campus Tournament. But by far the accomplishment I am most proud of is shielding the HCL from the total lame-assery of the student senate, while simultaneously representing our interests and conducting myself in accordance with the spirite of the league during Senate business.

I do not envy Kat’s upcoming year in Senate. Nor do I envy any lighthearted ASUW senator for the onanistic and self-important bullshit that they must endure.

But I do not regret the experience. There are some wonderful, thoughtful, dedicated, and comic personalities who made the whole experience bearable, and serving alongside these few individuals will allow me to remember this whole experience favorably. It has been, and I hate to be trite here, an honor representing our league and its spirit in what must be one of the most dull and pathetic bodies to ever assemble.

Raz