On Tuesday, Nov. 5, like so many other towns and cities around the country, my town of New Castle, New York held elections for the positions of town Supervisor, Councilmen and Justice. While many of my friends who are attending colleges out of the area marked their calendars as a reminder to send in their absentee ballots, I marked my calendar knowing that I would be making the two hour drive home to not only vote in person, but to help collect and count votes for my town’s Democratic Party. My dad had volunteered me to assist as a ballot recorder because this year he ran to keep his position as New Castle Town Justice. I initially followed the election for this reason, however I remained interested in the proceedings because I realized just how important the final outcome would be to everyone living in New Castle. The elections in my town this year were even more hotly contested than before, and every day people were writing letters to the editor of our town’s online newspaper bashing the opposition, only to receive a bashing themselves by anonymous users. This was one experience I was happy to be witnessing from Connecticut, and not in person.
What following the election and the issues that surrounded it did teach me, however, is just how important local government can be. When watching how dysfunctional Washington has been in recent weeks, I try and remember that it’s often state and local governments that are still managing to get work done. As Adam Nagourney and Jonathon Martin wrote in an article for the New York Times, “Governors are, at least by comparison to lawmakers in Washington, capable and popular leaders, pushing through major legislation and trying to figure out ways, with mixed success, to avoid partisan wrangling that has come to symbolize Washington.” Even when it becomes easy to lose faith in our country’s government, states and small towns like New Castle still manage to function.
Decisions made by local governments are often the ones most immediately felt by people living within its borders, and Conn’s Student Government Association is no exception. Issues that SGA will be dealing with in the coming weeks range from the hiring of Conn’s first woman campus safety officer to the future location of Knowlton’s language dining hall. The language dining hall in Knowlton, for example, has ignited the Knowlton community into trying to save the dining hall from being moved into Cro and turned into a computer lab for the next year as Shain is renovated. These are real changes that can have actual effects on the Connecticut College community, and it’s important that the student body remains informed and participates in debates.
There’s always one major event in every school year that grabs everyone’s attention; last year was the canceling of Fishbowl, and the entire seating area of Ernst was full of people waiting to give their opinions during the following SGA meeting. But even during weeks in which nothing eventful seems to happen, the resolutions being passed by SGA are still important and still deserve the attention of the College community. Even if it’s by shooting an email to your house senator, the student body can continue moving our school in the direction we want to see it go. As far as I know, SGA can’t shut down like our nation’s government constantly threatens to do, so we need to make the most of the time in which they’re working to better our college experience.
