Central Student Government delivers some valuable services for University of Michigan students. It distributes funding to student organizations, finances the AirBus program and provides students with free subscriptions to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. But recently, CSG has adopted a new modus operandi, one oriented around student activism rather than its core focus of making tangible improvements to student life. If this trend becomes the new status quo, CSG’s functions should be transferred to the University’s Student Life office.
In the March 2024 elections, a grand total of 9% of the University student body elected Alifa Chowdhury and Elias Atkinson of the SHUT IT DOWN party to serve as CSG president and vice president. As the name indicates, SHUT IT DOWN pledged to withhold all CSG funding until the University agreed to divest from companies that profit off of Israel’s war in Gaza. As promised, Chowdhury vetoed the Fall 2024 budget, cutting off the funding CSG traditionally provides. Students evidently disapproved; SHUT IT DOWN lost most of its seats during the following elections.
CSG is a body whose limited power — club funding, the AirBus program, etc. — is entirely tied to student welfare, meaning that any substantive effort to change University policy is more likely to harm students than achieve the desired outcome. SHUT IT DOWN’s focus on activism at the expense of student services demonstrated that much. When Chowdhury vetoed the budget and cut off student organization funding, it was the student body who suffered the harm. It was the University — by nature less prone to the vicissitudes of CSG activism — who stepped in to guarantee organization funding while SHUT IT DOWN served its term…