As the annual spring tradition of Student Government elections roll around, an opportunity for decisive change presents itself. As students at a privately-owned university, we have few opportunities to engage in democratic processes. The Student Government Association (SGA), as the only popularly elected and democratically accountable position that students can hold, presents a new terrain for class struggle on campus.

That this avenue has been ignored so far on campus as an avenue for popular struggle is unsurprising. Even though every weekly SGA meeting is open to all students, they are bureaucratic affairs drowned in parliamentary proceduralism and mind-numbing ice breakers. The elected body, much like Furman’s campus, is primarily white and upper/middle-class. Further, the necessary time-commitment and lack of pay makes it largely inaccessible to working students. But, much as the flowers blossom and the bees will soon begin to buzz again, so too can this stagnant body be transformed into an agent of change. Contesting these elections is a necessary step to realizing YDSA’s minimum program of full democratic control of our campus, and to ultimately delivering relief and agency for students and the working class. 

Contesting these elections is not only worthwhile, but a necessary step to realizing YDSA’s minimum program of full democratic control of our campus

Let’s start with SGA’s arguably largest responsibility, the management of its budget. A rough calculation of a $205 student activity fee multiplied by 2,500 students makes for an annual budget of $512,500. This money is distributed between FUSAB (which receives the largest portion by far, at 32.5%), the Student Councils (24%), the administrative costs of Student Life, the Residential Life Council (2%), and other SGA-Sponsored organizations (who are left the remainder).

The amount allotted to each respective group is determined by SGA, and thus theoretically subject to democratic control. How the budget is distributed is a statement of priorities. A damning fact: we have students who struggle to make ends meet, yet we spend over $150,000 annually on luxuries such as parties and balls. Fun and distraction are important, sure, but do we really need three ferris wheels on campus in a single year? Wouldn’t this money be better spent on need-based scholarships or increasing access to necessities like Plan-B or menstrual products? 

Outside of SGA’s direct control, it also has an important relationship with administration. As the representative body for the entire student body, it can play a key role in communicating student priorities to the Board of Trustees. Our student government could pass resolutions demanding, among other things, a ceasefire in Gaza, divestment from fossil-fuels and weapons manufacturers, and full support of reproductive and trans rights. The current body has not made a stand on any of these issues; as socialists and as students, we must demand that they do.

But what makes a candidate worthy of a YDSA endorsement? And how do we keep our electeds accountable to both the socialist vision for change, as well as the will of our chapter? Any strategy for accountability begins with our chapter’s vision for change: our campus program. Central among the list of demands are:

• Pay raises for all staff to a minimum of twenty dollars per hour, with additional raises calculated annually to account for inflation.
• Unabridged right of all faculty and staff to organize and participate in labor unions without university oversight or retaliation.
• Expedient transition to a carbon-negative and ecologically sustainable campus.

And arguably most important…

• Expansion of the Student Government Association to include a combined elected assembly of students, faculty, and non-administrative staff elected at regular intervals of not less than once per academic year and subject to recall elections at any time.

Any candidate that is seeking our endorsement needs to, at minimum, accept these demands. This commitment to human dignity is the bedrock of our socialist vision. The demands expressed in the program are not immutable. Our campus program represents and responds to the democratically-expressed will of the chapter as a whole, while maintaining its core underlying socialist principles.

Though electoral work, even on this scale, is not the foundation of a socialist theory of change, it remains one of the most accessible terrains for class struggle. No strike required, no need to risk your job or personal injury—only a privately cast ballot.

This is not an excuse to forego class struggle; our electoral work complements the power of the mass movement, the same mass movement making the electoral struggle possible. Fidelity to a truly socialist vision requires an engaged chapter of members struggling across multiple terrains for a socialist vision of justice.

Fighting for a fully accountable and democratic student government, one committed to the working class alongside solidarity with all the exploited and dispossessed, is a new avenue by which we hope to forward our aims towards a socialist future.