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Our Perspective...
SGA must change off-campus elections
Well, the year’s first round of Student Government
Association (SGA) elections have finished. Voter turnout was a little
over 1,500, which is pretty good for fall SGA elections.
While filling most of the senate seats on the SGA is a
good thing, this year also made very clear that some basic parts of SGA’s
system of elections need to be overhauled if they are to serve the student
body more effectively.
For starters, more and more students are moving off campus
due to Appalachian’s ever-growing student body. In fact, the majority
of the student body now lives off campus.
Yet how are off-campus seats distributed? They’re
voted for in one lump, with each off-campus student able to cast 39 votes
in this election, one for each candidate on the ballot. If an off-campus
student leaves some spots blank, the computer handily reminds them they
can still vote for more candidates and asks the voter if they are sure
they would not like to vote for everyone.
On-campus seats are allocated two to a residence hall.
This means on-campus races are more likely to have close competition,
so senators are more likely to be connected to their constituencies and
have to actively campaign for votes.
While this system is far from perfect, and doesn’t
necessarily mean senators from a residence hall will be great leaders,
it is far better than that used for off-campus.
Imagine walking into a voting booth in a local, state or
national election and seeing 39 people running for an office, and you
could vote for all of them. What would be your likely reaction?
With every off-campus student able to cast a vote for every
candidate on the ballot, what incentive is there for off-campus senate
candidates to go out and meet the people they’re supposed to represent?
What incentive is there for them to compete for votes and to try to find
issues that their constituents care about?
The answer is absolutely none, which is why you don’t
see off-campus candidates putting out fliers, or touting plans or doing
any number of things that political candidates in any race should be
doing.
This is not to imply that the candidates don’t care
about how students feel, it simply means that the system they’re
working under no longer meets the needs of Appalachian’s changing
student body.
The SGA constitution rules governing off-campus senators
have not been changed in a long time, and they were drafted in an era
when the ratio of off-campus students was much lower. Now that times
have changed, the system needs to change with it.
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Billy Fowler | The Appalachian |
RA remembers age in youthful halls
When did I become so old?
OK maybe not OLD, but older.
I do not know if the rest of my fellow juniors feel this
way, but I do.
Lately, I have felt so much older than everyone I am around
minus the people my age or older.
Now this is not going to be a column on how immature freshmen
or underclassmen, in general, are or how I despise their behavior.
I don’t contain any of these feelings and I am not
trying to offend anyone.
I am just pointing out the truth.
I am actually a resident assistant in Doughton Hall and
many of the people that I am coming to love are majority underclassmen,
but through this interaction I see so many differences between them and
myself.
One thing that started this whole thought process for me
was realizing the age gap between freshmen and juniors.
I am almost 21, legally allowed to do almost anything besides
rent a car. Most of the freshmen coming in are just turning 18 years
old.
I remember; I was once a freshman myself.
You are just getting away from your parents and experiencing
freedom on a whole different level. I, for one, was terrified, being
the first born child.
Your mind is so far away about what you actually want to
do when you leave this purgatory of reality.
The first thing you think about when coming to college
is the parties, what professors like and how hard you actually have to
work in college.
Most freshmen do not even have a grasp on who they really
are as a person. The next four years of their lives will be discovering
the different layers of their own personalities.
There is nothing wrong with this; this is what college
is about. College is a place to learn about yourself and what inspires
you. Why do you think there is this transition between high school and
reality?
You have four years before you even have to leave and there
is always the option called graduate school. There is no shame in this!
Everyone has to go through these obstacles at one point of their lives.
It is just part of the pathway of life.
My point is this: last year I was a sophomore and I still
felt very young and inexperienced, but lately things have changed. I
have been on campus for almost a month and a half now and have observed
a gap between these “youngins” and myself.
I feel so much older and mature than everyone even with
only this miniscule two year gap. I know myself and do not put myself
out there to make friends.
Meeting and making friends is not a priority to me anymore.
I have the friends I can count on and I love making new friendships,
but I do not go out of my way to meet people, like going to parties.
I know when I was a freshman I felt the need to go to parties
and make new friends, but now I know in reality I will not know half
of the people five years from now.
Another thing is my mind is focused on totally different
issues than just passing a class, but the future and the credits I need
to get there.
Freshmen are worried about just passing their classes and
getting involved, but my path has led me towards another direction. My
pathway for life feels completely altered than where all these freshmen
have started when they came here to Appalachian State University.
My thoughts are now to graduate school, getting a job,
what job I would like, where’s my money coming from, how many more
credits I need to graduate, leaving my friends here, marriage and much
more.
I know this is the path I am destined to go down; my point
is that I am waking up to realize I am almost 21 and I am not getting
any more time here than I already have left.
I’ll leave you with one last thought in the form
of a quote by Jennifer Yane that expresses my feeling about my recent
maturity in life, “Inside every older person is a younger person
wondering what happened.”
Freshmen: treasure your time here; its not long, I assure
you!
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Were Jesus, Mary Magdalene married?
Jesus has a bloodline? What?
Whenever a person of the devout Christian faith hears this
statement, utter rejection is their first step of action. There is no
way Jesus Christ could have had a bloodline; he was never married. Or
was he?
The bestselling novel, “The Da Vinci Code,” by
Dan Brown, proposes that maybe, just maybe, Jesus Christ was married
to Mary Magdalene, the labeled harlot in the Bible.
The basis for this seemingly off the wall and perhaps blasphemous
hypothesis is found in the artwork of Leonardo Da Vinci and Priory of
Sion, a historical brotherhood created to keep an ancient secret.
Through an incredible blend of fact and fiction, Brown
cleverly introduces the possibility that Jesus could have married Mary
Magdalene.
To even make the suggestion that Jesus could have been
married shakes the very foundation in which Christianity is based.
Supposing this proposition is true, why would it have been
kept a secret until now?
One theory currently in circulation blames the Catholic
Church for hiding the truth about Jesus.
The implication that Jesus had a wife, much less a child,
destroys the Church’s image of a real man void of man’s sins.
Mary Magdalene was the most mentioned female disciple of Jesus.
Perhaps the Church disgraced Mary Magdalene’s reputation
for 1,378 years because of her close relationship with Jesus.
Other evidence that alludes to Jesus and Mary Magdalene’s
relationship is found within “The Last Supper,” one of Da
Vinci’s most famous artworks.
Various symbolism and postulation that the person on Jesus’ right
hand side is in fact Mary Magdalene could suggest Mary Magdalene is the
Holy Grail. Everyone knows the Holy Grail is the cup Indiana Jones is
looking for in his adventure. Right?
The truth is, no one will ever know.
For 2,000 years, people have been developing new ideas
about Jesus and his incredible life. We know one version of what people
thought of Jesus; it is documented in the Bible.
But what if through time and translation, words have changed
meanings, things have been left out and added in?
How do we really know the Bible we have today conveys the
same information as the original?
Evidence has been found in the Gnostic Gospels (scrolls
located in Egypt in 1945) that could offer a different version of history.
While the scrolls are heavily damaged, lines about Jesus
kissing his companion Mary on the mouth indicates maybe they were closer
than previously thought.
While these lines could have been taken out of context,
evidence like this in addition to other random bits and pieces found
throughout history definitely leave me with room to doubt what I’ve
been told.
While I am not agreeing or disagreeing with the statement
that Jesus could have been married, I definitely believe it is a possibility.
As Brown states in his book, the winners write history.
When cultures collide, we’ll never know what has been left out
of the books.
I strongly suggest anyone interested in history, Christianity
or action novels read this thought-provoking and controversial thriller.
Though none of us will ever really know the truth as to
Jesus’ relationship with Mary, pondering its existence is not a
crime.
Whether faith in your respective religious practice guides
you through the history books or you believe everything your world civilizations
teacher says, I urge everyone to look back at history and see what’s
out there. You’d be surprised.
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