I’ve gone to Clemson for the past three years, and within that time I’ve heard all about how students should vote in Clemson Undergraduate Student Government (CUSG) elections. I, along with countless other students, have heard things like “It’s really important to vote in your student elections!” and “Your vote can hep make a difference on Clemson’s campus.” However, I don’t think either of those statements are true, because I, like many other students on Clemson’s campus, have little to no idea what CUSG actually does, and therefore I must ask, what does CUSG actually do? Before I go any further, I should explain that just because I don’t understand something, doesn’t mean that I think that it’s pointless. I don’t understand how the economy works, yet I know how crucial that is to the survival of our country as well as to my regular day-to-day life. Yet the reason that I am so adamant to question what CUSG does is that every year students are reminded of their existence but not of their role in the day-to-day lives of students. While I still do not totally understand what CUSG does, I believe that it is important to bring this unspoken norm to the limelight as it is a major organization that students are paying for with their tuition money.

Every year, we the student population, hear about the upcoming CUSG elections and how these students will make a positive change on campus. In the three years that I have been here, I have seen virtually no change. This is not to imply that the situation on campus has gotten worse, only that it should be better. Parking is still a nightmare for most students, the ticketing system for football games is a broken system and now the one thing that I do know about CUSG, their allocation of money to clubs and organizations, is being taken away from them. They have virtually no responsibilities nor no real power. With this, I must further ask why CUSG members are attending leadership retreats and hosting their own formals? Are they patting themselves on the back for a job not done? CUSG needs to have a major rehaul or else they should lose their funding. Their purpose should be to be the voice of the students to the administration, not to be the administration’s spineless puppets who get to attend special events due to the fact that they were able to convince the small number of students voters to actually vote for them.