SG leaders characters to be kept in check

With changes in FGCU's Student Government that seem to be coming as often as summer thunderstorms, one word has consistently been repeated amongst our campus hierarchy: leadership. 

 

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines leadership as, "The office in which a leader sits; the capacity of someone to lead; and the act or an instance of someone leading." However, I believe that leadership can be summed up as, "The truest test of one's character." 

Perhaps Martin Luther King Jr. had it right: "The ultimate test of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and moments of convenience, but where he stands in moments of challenge and moments of controversy." 

 

How does Student Government leadership relate to you and me? Simply put, we entrust our fellow students to make decisions on our behalf, in a way that they believe will be in our best interests as a whole. 

 

With this trust come various responsibilities— some enumerated and some implied. An example of an enumerated responsibility would be to attend Board of Trustees meetings. An example of an implied responsibility is to always conduct yourself in a manner befitting the office that you are holding, whether in public or private. 

 

Now, I understand that this is college, and no, I am not going to say that I am perfect and never do anything wrong. However, I will say that I am not in a high leadership position on campus. 

 

In reality, an elected official is always held to a higher standard than the average citizen is. If you are in elected office, prepare to live in a fish bowl. Then, if you do something wrong, prepare for everybody and their grandmother to be in your personal business. 

I am not saying this is fair, however, I am saying this is the nature of politics.

 

Nevertheless, there is a valid reason for a "fish bowl" effect in the realm of electoral politics. 

 

When the electorate casts their votes in an election, they are not just endorsing a specific person or persons; they are supporting and approving a set of ideas. In this past election, the message of bringing together the FGCU campus was the platform of the Unite party. 

 

In all fairness, that is exactly what former Student Body President Peter Ryther and new Student Body President Kim Diaz attempted to do. In fact, they did garner enough support to win the election in the largest turnout in FGCU history. Even if the Unite party did not "unite' the entire campus, they certainly ran a campaign that brought out widespread campus support for student government elections. This is a commendable act by anyone's standards. 

 

However, the question remains, after the heated politics of campaigning was over, what kind of leadership could we have expected under a Ryther/Diaz administration? 

 

Unfortunately, we will never truly know what that administration would have accomplished, had this whole debacle with alleged pot smoking at the SG retreat not taken place. In fact, I do not believe it is our best interests to speculate in any way. 

 

All we are certain about is that the people who were involved in this event will remember it for some time to come. I hope for our sake that the public will be quick to forget it, though. 

 

Resignations have been tendered, and new people have assumed their vacant offices. It takes a lot of courage to admit you have made a mistake in the middle of a firestorm, and I praise anyone who has done so.