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Show OPINIONS Team Innovate: a retrospective VOLUME L11 ISSUE 23 By MATTHEW JONASSAINT Opinions Writer Open secret: The 2011 student government election was a complete joke and an institutional embarrassment. When Chris Loumeau was elected student body president, not much more than two percent of over 32,000 students seemed to care. Team Innovate ran unopposed, and composed completely of incumbents, with the mission "to fight for the students!" This should have unsettled any student who cares about what happens with their fees, and given every active member of UVUSA cause for alarm. UVUSA is in charge of $12 million a semester, and students' indifference about so much of their own money should be deeply unsettling. When he became pressed to respond to the strange "apathy" noted by students, professors, UVU Review and others on campus, Loumeau wrote a letter. He addressed the implications that, because members of UVUSA are on the elections committee, and that for the past few years only a team of incumbents ever wins student elections, "the election process may be flawed." Loumeau responded with his feelings that there were "extremely rigid rules" to the process and that such rules FEBRUARY 20, 2012 WWW.UVUREVIEW.COM may be particularly demanding on teams comprised of students from UVUSA. He also suggested that to get involved in politics required beginning from the bottom up to ensure leadership properly prepared by experience. These answers were not adequate, and they are still as vacuous a year later. I've only been a student on this campus for five years, but every year the rules have proved simply to protect the team who will, from the start, inevitably win. To be specific: If you don't know how to bend the rules and exploit the many gray areas in the UVUSA campaign handbook, you don't have much of a chance against others who have been in the organization long enough to know better. The election process is in need of reform, as does UVUSA, which is comprised primarily of students majoring in public relations, communications, business management and sometimes, medical science. This is, in actuality, recycling from a homogeneous group of students that do not necessarily represent our strongest programs. Why is it that a student interested in humanities, physical sciences or performing arts is less adequate than public relations and communications? A year ago, Loumeau sug- gested being involved in politics means working up the ladder "to ensure they have necessary experience." Good experience is indeed important. I just think that, at an undergraduate college, a philosophy major should have as many good ideas about running a higher learning institution as a business major, and should be given the chance to prove it. Surely UVUSA is not the only student organization that can provide the right experience for someone who wants to run for the government. But during election time, "extremely rigid rules" will not help someone who comes from anywhere else. True innovation would be a student government organization that is able to attend to the needs of so many thousands of students because it can reach every student group on campus. The majority of students, or at least more than the few at present, would have a thorough understanding of where fees go and why, how to contribute to campus prestige no matter your program, how to prepare for graduate school and the professional world with the help of student-run conferences and publications, and be better acquainted with current persons relevant to campus interests. These things, and more, would help us become better citizens as well because ac- tively participating in politics means actively participating in what's already around you most of the time; no matter what corner of campus you spend the most time in, you can improve your time there, and the academic environment surrounding you, if you just know how to look for the opportunities. But for the past year, our student government has, under Loumeau's leadership, provided mostly opportunities for date nights and pretendtailgates . Not many students know when senate hearings are or how to change the constitution. We don't know why all the new building signs had to be paid for, in part, with our own fees, or why those same millions of dollars in fees have been helping pay for a football team for at least a decade. Students might benefit from a campus event that brings prominent professors and serious professionals from credible universities and disciplines. This is in contrast to most speaker events involving famous "real life" celebrities who are typically related to feel-good sports movies (which are themselves of some dispute). Because such speakers always promise and deliver massive attendance, student government has it easy while various programs on our campus must pull together the funding on their COURTESY OF TEAM INNOVATE What's an antonym for "innovate"? Because that should have been the team name. own for a visit from a Sandy Skoglund, a Cornel West, or a Stephen Jay Gould. One year after Team Innovate won an election, thanks to a weak and failed process, this student is asking just how much innovation he saw. Loumeau's promises, and his answers to the implications of a flawed system, are as stale as they were last spring. The highest-paid slaves in the world By FELICIA JOY Assistant Opinions Editor The NBA basketball season is already in full swing, and along with it, the fantasy basketball teams. The Fantasy Sports Trade Association estimates that 32 million people ages 12 and above had fantasy teams in 2010. That number increases annually. The sports industry grosses about 3-4 billion dollars from this hobby and 22 percent of adult males ages 18-49 invest in a fantasy sports team in North America every year. There is something cathartic about "watching the game" and talking about players and vying for the win of a favorite team. But there is also something that should cause suspicion - something unsettling and something that needs to be addressed. When I watch basketball and listen to the announcers, I'm surprised at the language they use to describe the game. It's reminiscent of the way that men traditionally talk about women or the military. They say things like, "That was a lovely shot," or "That was a beautiful play." Innuendos like "penetrating the paint," and "putting it in" are repeated for hours. The bodies of the players are described in very objectifying terms. Their finesse, their bone structure, their height and weight, tattoos and hairdos, their recent injuries are described as assets or liabilities, tasteful or displeasing. They are given nicknames that dehumanize, animalize and racialize them. "Black Chocolate," "Black Mamba" and "Durantula" are a few examples. This kind of commentary, rich with fetishization, is juxtaposed with discussions of their talents and abilities to dominate. When certain players come on to the court, announcers will say things like, "bringing out the big guns." Words like "slaughtering," "killing" and "butchering" are blasted into living rooms all over the country as fans reach with ease for their favorite beer. Over 83 percent of NBA players are black. The fetishizing language used to describe basketball is not as prevalent with games like baseball and golf, sports that consist more of white players. The participation in fantasy sports is much higher in sports leagues that feature more black players. Each weekend millions of men sit with their buddies, organizing their sports teams, making bets on individuals, heckling over them and predicting their performance. These players, most of whom are black, can be traded, bought and sold with the simple click of a mouse. One mechanism of white supremacist ideology still infecting PHOTO COURTESY OF FACEBOOK Professional athletes make a lot of money, yes - but they also ruin their bodies on the job. our culture is the inability for a minority to succeed without something being in it for the white community. When companies or institutions can brag about their diversity for the sake of political correctness, or get tax breaks for adhering to affirmative action quotas, they are reaping the benefits of a minority presence. They are institutionalizing the need for the benefit to be there in the first place. Fantasy sports are no exception. It's not enough to watch gigantic black men compete with each other and describe their bouts with the vocabulary we use to talk about black on black crime. Now, the average fan can personally and monetarily benefit in ways they have never been able to before. People think NBA players make too much money but it takes a lot of money to convince someone to voluntarily sacrifice the amount these athletes do. Professional athletes are always nursing injuries. They are always in some kind of pain. Professional athletes have a shorter lifespan than the general population. In their later years, the concussions these players suffered lead to extreme migranes, and the injuries to terrible bouts of arthritis. There are a growing number of suicides among professional athletes. There's not an amount of money that can sufficiently compensate for the loss of 15-25 years of life. People shame these players for various scandals they get accused of, but remain shameless about the envi- OPINIONS EDITOR ASST. OPINIONS EDITOR OPINIONS DESIGNER jrboyce@gmail.com felicialartey@gmail.com tjmendenhall@q.com JOHN-ROSS BOYCE FELICIA JOY TARALYN MENDENHALL ronments and conditions that engender said scandals. Recruiting someone right out of high school makes higher education almost impossible to attain. They travel to a different state every couple of days during the season and have to pick up their families and move them constantly depending on where they get traded. The writing in the contracts is so binding, one is not only committing to games and practices, but appearances at charity events, press conferences, and sponsor commercials. Functional relationships with spouses and children are especially difficult, and hard won in this lifestyle. Physical pain, emotional strain and lack of education are all elements that lead to poor decision-making. I love sports. But it is hard not to notice the mechanisms of white supremacy at work every time I watch a game. Last year I was at Deron wilhams ' final game with Jazz. The Jazz benefited greatly from the talents of this franchise player, and you could see the frustration on his face as they played against the Chicago Bulls and he competed against his former teammates. Sitting courtside, you heard the intensity of the yelling and aggression, and I knew that Williams was angry, frustrated and done. And, he was. The next day he was gone, traded to a no name team without a second thought. I know this is part of the game, part of the contract and part of the "fun," but gladiator spectatorship shouldn't be contracted, and actually, isn't fun for me at all. |