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From: gerber@mit-amt.MIT.EDU (Andrew S. Gerber)
Newsgroups: net.college
Subject: Re: Student Govt. What purpose?
Message-ID: <95@mit-amt.MIT.EDU>
Date: Wed, 26-Feb-86 21:47:18 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-amt.95
Posted: Wed Feb 26 21:47:18 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Feb-86 21:57:24 EST
References: <333@ihu1n.UUCP>
Reply-To: gerber@mit-amt.UUCP (Andrew S. Gerber,,,2256511)
Distribution: net
Organization: MIT Media Lab
Lines: 47

In article <333@ihu1n.UUCP> johnnyr@ihu1n.UUCP (John R. Rosenberg) writes:
>This may be a naive question, but despite preconceived notions
>I really am interested in information from both sides
>of the question.
>
>What useful purpose does a student govt. at a college
>or university serve?
>
>Thanks.
>John Rosenberg  AT&T-NS
>ihnp4!ihu1n!johnnyr
>


I've often wondered this myself.  At MIT, the student government does
the following things (at least these are things I have seen them doing
-- they may do others, so don't flame at me)

1) Provide an interface between the student body and the college
admnistration.

2) Nominate students to the various committees of the Institute - these
committees have many functions, and the students are given voting
membership in the committees.  

3) Oversee the use of student activity space.

4) Coordinate social events.

5) Coordinate "class" activities, choosing a ring company, the "class
gift", class T-shirts, etc.

6) Provide students with a juicy resume entry.

7) Help students exersize leadership ability.  

8) Give students something else to do but just study & party.

9) Provide a social organization for a group of students.

There are probably many others that people can think of, some less
complementary than others, but the above is what I see MIT's student
government doing.  

Note: my only experiance in MIT student government is being a judcomm
(Judicial Committee) member of my dorm.