TSG Shift: Temple Student Government has unwisely moved back the elections.

On Main Campus, long criticized for low levels of interest in student government, TSG has postponed their elections, scheduled for next week, as reported by The Temple News today.
Moving the dates from April 8 and 9 to April 22 and 23 risks further depleting involvement in the election. The delay was said to allow potential candidates to better familiarize themselves with the collective changes that have come after TSG’s constitutional convention earlier this month [“TSG pens new constitution, first in 25 years,” Rebecca Hale, March 3, 2008”]. Those of us on the periphery are left with quite an opposing reaction, that of knowing less.

It seems too often that TSG, an instrumental and important institution at Temple, one that The Temple News covers with a great deal of respect, is an inward-looking animal. If it is worrying about its candidate’s knowledge of the issues, then TSG cannot expect anyone outside of the organization to know, care and, therefore, vote in an educated manner in late April.
The move, sadly, has precedent.

Just one year ago, the only slate running for executive offices of TSG changed the date of its first open forum the day before it was scheduled to occur.
The reason came in embarrassing fashion.

The university’s Anime Club, a group that gets funding from TSG, had reserved the same location first [“Upstaged,” Sam Benesby, April 3, 2007”].

There is a degree of impotence that could be eradicated with swift, decisive and firm dates and decisions by TSG leaders. Moving its election barely a week in advance hardly constitutes such a move.

A lack of student investment in on-campus events, programs and issues is the bane of the university’s Office of Student Activities, all organizations and event student media, to be sure.
The Temple News has already expressed in these pages its interest in TSG consolidating the power of the university’s broadest student organizations to increase its presence [“TSG Rewritten,” Editorial Board, March 3, 2008], but that set aside, this move reconfirms sad assumptions by too many students, that the organization is unworthy of their attention.
Solidly-dated elections that run smoothly and effectively are the keystone of stable and healthy groups, societies and nations. This move by TSG is a troubling shift to the contrary.