In my four years at The Post, no kind of coverage has caused more blowback than the annual spring Student Senate elections.
Paranoid of breaking election rules, candidates write nasty letters disputing the ways they’ve been quoted or described and, of course, my washing machine gets clogged with all of the campaign fliers I’ve mindlessly stuffed into pants pockets during my daily trek to Baker Center.
Nothing irks senate campaigns more than tough, thorough coverage.
A prime example of that oft-protested, yet illuminating, coverage is a story that’s been featured on the front page three of the last four years — an examination of which senate candidates have criminal records in Athens, if any.
Now, I can already hear the protests.
“It’s not fair, plenty of students have disorderly conduct charges.”
“Don’t you know this stuff ends up online forever?”
“Who is The Post to dig up these criminal charges and arrest records?!”
Therein lies the ultimate Student Senate hypocrisy. Despite the resumé and ego boosts that come with being “student leaders,” many of these leaders still think they’re owed the anonymity that comes with being a typical OU student.
But they’re anything but the typical OU student.
The typical student doesn’t barrage students’ social media feeds with event invites and reminders to vote. The typical student doesn’t harass everyone entering Baker Center with neon-colored fliers. The typical student doesn’t plaster off-campus houses, classroom buildings and campus sidewalks with posters of his or her smiling face.
During the course of my four years on campus, I’ve had the pleasure of building relationships with dozens of student leaders in both senate and elsewhere on campus. But the truth remains: For every hardworking and humble Student Legal Services volunteer or Student Senator, there’s a self-centered, bureaucrat-in-the-making whose motivations are a line on their law school resumé and their nightly dreams of a real-life Senate run one day.
There’s nothing wrong with ambition, but if these student leaders plan careers
as public servants, they must accept that they’ve voluntarily placed themselves into the public eye and will receive public scrutiny of their private mistakes.
Leadership requires sacrifice of personal privacy.
When the head of OU’s Honor Council — a body convened to uphold and encourage academic and behavior integrity — is cited for dorm drinking: We’re going to cover it. When a presidential candidate is seen handing out drinks to underage students at Palmerfest: We’re going to write about it. And when a treasurer candidate is cited by Athens Police just two months before beginning a campuswide campaign: We’re definitely going to write about it.
That’s the role of media in democracy — to shine the light of accountability into the darkness of government. I won’t be apologizing for insisting our student leaders are held to a higher standard, because if The Post doesn’t ask the tough questions, who will?
Wesley Lowery is a senior studying journalism and editor-in-chief of The Post. Email him at wl372808@ohiou.edu.
