Kristen Zelechowski was a mistake. The end of the current Student Government Association (SGA) president's reign of terror is drawing closer, and I'm sure I'm not the only one counting the days.
Over the past three semesters, Zelechowski has managed to alienate the leaders of virtually every student organization, completely disregard any sense of professionalism and decorum, blatantly steal an election for the office she currently holds and little else.
But that doesn't mean that Zelechowski's time in office can never have a positive impact. After all, everyone makes mistakes, and it's the responsibility of everyone affected by the Zelechowski travesty to learn from this one.
Above all else, this dark chapter in Edinboro University's history is a lesson in the dangers of both apathy and reactionary behavior.
For those not closely following SGA, it's easy to forget how Zelechowski originally came to power during the waning days of the Joe Malizia era.
Malizia was generally disliked as the SGA president for being, among other things, so heavy handed and committed to procedure that many felt the body was crippled by his insistence on following Robert's Rules to the smallest point of order.
It seems as likely as anything that Zelechowski was chosen because she didn't feel the need to commit to the rules. Immediately following the anal-retentive Malizia days, Zelechowski's complete disregard for any formality seemed refreshing; perhaps SGA?could finally focus on student advocacy and move away from minor monetary squabbles.
But it quickly became evident, through her marathon meetings and over-all dismissal of doing things the right way, that she didn't care about the student body's needs or concerns, just with satiating her own massive ego.
It's important to also take to heart the havoc wrecked by out of control ego.
Most of us have experienced it in one form or the other, and I know I'm no exception. Few things can be as damaging as a person who feels like the best course of action in almost any situation is to seize complete control, usually away from people who are as qualified as they are, if not more so.
What some people need to learn is that when you're the leader of some body or organization, that doesn't make you the owner of said body, and seizing almost tyrannical rule over things isn't going to make anything better for anyone.
In the end, people will just resent you for not letting them make full use of their natural abilities, and your work will suffer for the same reason.
When it comes to Kristen, she didn't only seize complete control, often illegally, over what should be a democratic body; she made sure that no one could usurp her control by filling her executive board with puppets and yes-men. The only person who had a hair of individuality, Vice President Edwin Ludwig, was continually subjected to unfair scrutiny and backdoor politics until he was finally forced to resign out of disgust.
As understandable as Ludwig's decision was to step away from what Zelechowski turned into a cess pool of corruption, it's hard not to wish he stuck it out to fight the good fight.
I know we all have to deal with the harsh realities of the world every day, and it's incredibly easy to be weighed down by things like interoffice politics and petty feuding. But I'll always believe that there's a place in this world for optimism, and "fighting the good fight" doesn't have to exist only as a corny cliché.
We all have to one day learn to deal with people who obviously work against our interest for selfish reasons, but that doesn't mean we have to either lower ourselves to their level or resign ourselves to defeat.
I know that in just a few days, I'll be gone, leaving little more than a sea of ink on quickly decaying broadsheet, but it's impossible to completely divorce myself from the world I've been living in for the past few years.
So all of you incoming student leaders, I urge that you take the lessons of our failures and work on running things a better way. Find a way where the ideas of others aren't dismissed simply because they aren't your own.
And, I urge every student with even the tiniest iota of caring for the rest of the Edinboro student body to start caring. These problems don't go away by themselves.
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