A promising idea

Posted at 07:27PM on Mar 28, 2008 by Editors

Yesterday a friend of mine stumbled upon an incredibly simple idea out of University of California, Berkeley to keep student politicians aware of the promises they so often forget after being elected. Every Executive and Senator in the Associated Students of the University of California, Berkeley has a profile page with contact information, a photo, and a description of the role of the position. Most importantly, it also contains the campaign promises the member made when running for the position.

If SSMU did this, students would have a much easier job figuring out if student politicians are actually fulfilling their promises (let's be fair: we often forget who promises what). It would be mind-numbingly simple to implement (even given SSMU's persistent inability to properly run their web site). And, although The Daily has been posting promises politicians make and rating how well they've kept them for years, the prominence of promises would mean students would better be able to hold politicians to account, and politicians would be much less likely make promises they don't intend to keep.

The proposal would certainly help increase transparency and accountability, and decrease the "amnesia" student politicians always seem to suffer over the summer. One wonders which student politicians, if any, will be the first to support this measure. (Thanks to the features of our new web site, if you are a SSMU Councillor or Executive, you can show your support to the right in the comments, and can put your campaign promises there as well.)

Nicholas Smith
News Editor