As I sat in the Associated Students, Inc. meeting two weeks ago listening to the dialogue about abolishing slates, and instead allowing students to pick their favorite colors over their favorite issues, I chuckled silently to myself — student government at Sacramento State had come to this.

So my thoughts wandered away from the meeting where I was wasting my time, and I started thinking. In the early 1960s, California Gov. Edmund “Pat” Brown dreamed of a university system that would be open to anyone. Under Brown’s stewardship, this dream was realized and the California State University system was created.

Our student body was incorporated in the spirit of that dream, and at one time embodied it. But now we are at a perilous juncture: Our student government has been left adrift, floating further and further away from its intended course. Recent legislation from our elected leaders takes away our most basic rights, and poses the greatest threat to the student body since ASI’s creation.

It’s not too late, however. There is still time to take back our dream and our campus. This journey starts with the creation of a Students’ Bill of Rights. In this document, the basic rights this country was founded on would finally be granted to students. Prior administrations have always respected an “invisible line” that government cannot cross, but in light of recent events, it’s clear we need a wall.

The Students’ Bill of Rights would be a barrier to injustice in three ways: It would formally define rights like freedom of speech, it would supersede any legislation passed by the board and it would only be alterable by a direct vote of the student body. Once this is accomplished we can again strive for that dream of a government for everyone.

As the ASI election comes up, we need to think long and hard about the kind of leaders we’re electing. Ask yourself a few questions: Can we do better? Are we CSUS students better off now than we were a year ago? What’s it going to be in 2004-05: more tomfoolery under the ASI Big Top, or real change for the great silent majority? The choice is yours.

Brandon Kline is a junior government major and is the president of Sacramento State’s InterFraternity Council. He can be reached at [email protected]