Student apathy is an often-used phrase to describe the attitude Rhodes students have towards voting for their Student Representative Council (SRC) every year.
Student apathy is an often-used phrase to describe the attitude Rhodes students have towards voting for their Student Representative Council (SRC) every year.
The latest SRC election period was concluded on the evening of 28 August with the inauguration of the 2014 council. This was the first time in about four years that the university managed to reach quorum so that voting did not have to be conducted twice due to lack of votes.
Being a member of the Rhodes SRC is a demanding task, not only because it requires the commitment of councillors, but also because the SRC is used as target practice.
If you were to spend five minutes reading the content on the Rhodes SRC Facebook group, you might gather the impression that the council is ineffective, obsolete or simply non-existent. Such is the volume of vitriol, complaints and slander that fills the page.
Rhodes students know how to complain and we know how to throw flames, but what we lack is the ability to work with our SRC to solve problems together.
We prefer to swear and stamp our feet when we don’t get our own way and then when the SRC comes to our rescue, as they did for hundreds of students who ended up in the Intervarsity after-party debacle at Rag Farm in PE, we stand shocked and amazed, surprised that those we voted in have done their jobs.
Rhodes’s SRC is a rarity among student governance systems in that it has no political affiliations; the candidates run for office simply to serve (or to plump up their CVs), not to punt political agendas.
As such, the incentive for students to vote is reduced because their politics are not represented by the representative council.
The irony is not lost.
While the idea of a politically-affiliated SRC fills me with dread, it might go some way to redressing the issue of voter apathy, though on the other hand the council might then descend into party politics, making the SRC even more ineffectual.
SRC elections usually take place in the third term so that the outgoing SRC can conduct the handover and the incoming councillors can learn the ropes.
No one expected the university to reach quorum and with seven uncontested positions, student interest was low.
In my opinion, this is due in part to the fear that people have for filling the positions given the amount of complaints that are made to and about the SRC. And partly because, essentially, many people are unaware of the work the SRC does and so simply do not care to get involved.
There is a misguided perception that student governance is conducted by figureheads that smile and nod and do nothing, much like Head Prefect positions in high school.
The SRC has an unfortunate reputation of being ineffectual and obsolete and the students are therefore less inclined to engage with them, the cycle perpetuating the problem.
The truth is somewhat more complex.
While the SRC has had its fair share of controversies in the past, a notable success this year was the initiative the 2013 SRC took to rescue the students at Intervarsity.
This event, while disastrous and potentially very dangerous, went a long way to bolstering faith in student governance given the contrasts between the Rhodes SRC’s action and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) SRC’s inaction. As Eric Ofei, SRC liaison officer and a former SRC president, said at the inauguration, “I would like to send the NMMU SRC a box of chocolates.”
Chocolates or no, the Rhodes SRC has the backing of the student body, at least for now.
To reach quorum 2 114 votes were required and overall 2 373 votes were cast. This from a campus of over 7 000 students is still somewhat troubling, but it’s a small step in the right direction.
The voting process differed slightly in 2013 with the establishment of the Independent Electoral Board (IEB) who oversaw elections, ensuring that they were free and fair and most importantly, making sure that quorum was reached.
That a board is required to ensure that enough votes are cast so that the choice of SRC councillors is not left up to the vice-chancellor is in itself indicative of the general lack of interest students have in their own peer governance.
Is it faith we’re lacking, or will power? Or is it simply the end of term, we’re on our way home or on holiday, and we are perhaps all just too tired to care?
