The Senate And The Trough
The ODE deserves a tip o’ the hat for making such a big deal out of this one, if only because the collective comedy self-mortification has been so much fun to read. However, I think their post-debacle analysis doesn’t quite hit the spot. (Link to today’s editorial coming as soon as it’s online.)
After a hard day of “facilitat[ing] open communication and foster[ing] goal setting”, I too am usually disposed to kick back with some suds. I (and for once I feel confident speaking on behalf of the entire OC) find it difficult to moralize too much about the revelation that participants of this ASUO “finance retreat” drank – shock! – beer and smoked – gasp! – pot. And the ODE doesn’t do that either, exactly. What they do say is that this is inappropriate behavior for participants in a retreat funded by $3200 of student incidental fees. And they’re right, because ASUO groups should never get to spend $3200 of incidental fees on resort accomodation. Never. I don’t care whether they behave, collectively, like Mormons or the second coming of John Belushi. I don’t care how much open communication was facilitated. It matters not to me how much goal setting was fostered. Even if they fostered the setting of (say) eight goals during this process, that still works out to $400 a goal. Folks, this is an unacceptable price for goal-setting-fostering. That money was – figuratively if not literally – pissed up the wall. And the only reason it’s even reported as something outside the norm is that some college students (from Eugene, no less) got high.
Just wanted to underline that point. Moreover, if you really want to facilitate open communication, a couple of cases of beer will do a hell of a lot more than a trip to Sunriver.
