There are approximately 180 countries in the world, each with unique government structures and ideologies.

While many nations experience political turmoil due to corrupt leaders or unfair representation, the United States is strongly grounded on democracy and a government “of the people, by the people, for the people,” in the words of Abraham Lincoln. Thus, it would make sense that each subsequent governing body in the United States would follow a similar pattern to that of the federal government.

As student senate president at Baker University, I preside over our own little government. Yet every government, no matter how small, should still be run according to the same guiding principles of justice, equality and objectivity in order to advance the well-being of the constituents it is representing.

Here at Baker, I believe there is an imbalance in the way our student government operates. At the beginning of my term last August, I made it a personal goal to take a closer look at our constitution and restructure our organization to better fit the needs of this campus.

While many of the necessary changes were easily carried out, there remains one issue yet to be resolved.

The current constitution stipulates that elections be held each spring to elect a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and representative from the sophomore, junior and senior classes, with similar elections being held for the freshmen in the fall. All 20 elected students are then expected to attend each student senate meeting and will have voting privileges at those meetings.

This is how many governments at the municipal, state and federal governments operate.

Additionally, however, each of the nearly 50 registered student organizations on campus are also eligible to send a voting member to each senate meeting. This is not a common occurrence among any other government I know of.

This regulation, outlined in the constitution, has caused many problems for the workings of student senate over the years. Namely, many organization members either do not attend meetings regularly or send different members each week, resulting in confusion over issues that may come up in subsequent meetings.

Moreover, the elected senators are held to an attendance policy. If they violate this policy, they are eligible for impeachment. The same cannot be said of the students representing organizations.

Most importantly, I believe allowing non-elected members to vote undermines the power of the students that actually ran for their position and were elected to it by their peers. With 20 elected senators and approximately 50 organizations, the organization voting members could easily outnumber and override the same senators they sought to elect.

With all these things aside, however, I believe it’s necessary to change our voting system to one in which only elected members are authorized to vote simply because that is the way a respectable government should be run.

The United States Congress does not allow the CEO of a large company or a representative from an influential non-profit company to walk into the Senate or House of Representatives and vote on a bill. Citizens have their chance at a voice when they elect their representatives to their seats, and that is exactly how I assert Baker’s student government should operate as well.