With posters up on railings and student senators emerging from the campus center, you can bet a new student senate is up for election.

It’s about time.

The Channels believes our current Associated Student Senate has been rife with sloppy politics and lax professionalism.

The senate is composed of 17 student members who hold 25 percent of the administrative power of our college. This power is intended to be to representative of City College students’ interests.

Channels reporters, who attend every administration meeting on campus, have seen multiple atrocities at the hand of the senate.

The senate has a long streak of leaving its collective head in the sand until elections roll around.  Only then do they talk to the student body.

The elections are based around who has talked to the most students instead of who best fits the position.

The majority of senators don’t poll our students.  In case you need any more clarification, this is bad because the Student Senate exists to represent its students.

But whatever, at least they all vote based off of their own well-informed positions, right?

Nope.

Many of the senate members don’t even care enough to swing to the easy majority when it’s time to vote.

At the April 26 meeting, not enough senators voted on an action item for it to pass or fail.  They had to call the vote twice for everyone too lazy to vote the first time.

A recent club grant passed through a senate meeting untouched because too many members abstained from voting to reach a majority.

At least they maintain enough respect for us not to vote when they’re uninformed.

Maybe instead of taking the trouble of actively listening or researching these action topics before the meeting, they could fulfill their job description and poll the students.

The worst part is their lack of communication, which restricts students from knowing they even have a voice in the election.

Now, we know feisty Americans are already grabbing pitchforks and starting to rally outside of the Senate’s office in protest.

But the revolution will have to wait.

Some senate members have proven to be tenacious leaders, excellent communicators and articulate student voices.

The sad fact is these gold mines are rare and hard to come by.

With elections underway, The Channels will release videos of the candidates for Student Senate President and Student Trustee on our page to help you make your choice.

On Friday, April 26 before the elections began, the senate was debating which days the elections ran through. As various dates rang out from senator to adviser, not a single correct date was suggested.

They had to look up the dates to their own election.

Strong and focused leadership is imperative within any organization.  At a city college with a high turnover rate of students, senators who are looking to succeed need an adviser to hold them accountable to their propositions.

When the senators suggest polling strategies for interacting with the student body, the advisers should hold them to their word.  Assign a suitable senator to write up the polls and distribute them amongst the rest of the senate.

With the right leadership, maybe the student body will get some accurate representation.

Just maybe.

One of their advisers, Amy Collins, has the correct idea in mind.

“I’m getting a lot of concerns from a lot of the senators here that everyone is not pulling their own weight,” said Collins, adviser for the associated student government. “People aren’t attending their committees; they’re not responding to emails; whether it’s a yes or a no, people are just ignoring each other. It ties into not showing up on time for meetings and not showing up at all for meetings.”

To the silent students reading this, get informed, ask questions, and keep your eyes open.

This editorial was written by opinion editor Scott Buffon and reflects the opinion of the Channels Editorial Board.

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You can vote in the spring ’13 Associated Student Senate here.

How to know who to vote for: the student senate candidates.