Diamondback Online - The University of Maryland's Independent Daily Student Newspaper

Issue date: 3/29/07 Section: Opinion

It has become a truism of Diamondback reportage that student leaders are only getting results when they put on flashy publicity stunts that antagonize decision-makers and draw media hype. I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly of student leadership, and I have to disagree. Don't get me wrong - stunts most definitely have their place! I got my start in the era of Tim Daly, who has become this paper's touchstone for achieving visibility. In one of his most outrageous and famous moves, he led a protest group that deposited a rusting old Pinto in front of Governor's Mansion after former Gov. Robert Ehrlich tried to justify huge higher education budget cuts by reminding us, "If you can afford a Cadillac, that's terrific. But for some folks, you need to start out with the Pinto." If it were not for the outrageous and provocative things we did in those days, student leadership in this state would not be taken half as seriously as it is.

However, there is a time and a place for everything, and hype should not be confused with results. Back in the Ehrlich days, our goal was to embarrass the governor and draw attention to the plight of students and their families - we were not seeking a constructive outcome because we already knew there could not be one. When the people on the other side of the table are reasonable, it is often better to use a different approach. Take, for example, the recent disagreement between student leaders and city, county and state officials over redrawing the School Facilities Impact Fee Waiver zone for student housing in College Park and the surrounding area. This paper had been critical of the fact that students did not make a bigger stink about the issue, thereby (presumably) whipping up such a frenzy that some sort of good outcome would appear.

Recent attempts to expand on the record of what happened have cast a better light on the actions of the student leaders involved. When the issue of the exemption came to our attention, a group of us began an intense round of negotiation with the state lawmakers and city officials involved that culminated in a series of worksessions during which a suitable compromise was achieved. Making a gigantic public fuss over the issue would have damaged existing good relationships with community leaders that helped make an ultimate compromise possible and would almost certainly have failed to achieve a positive result for students. The sign of real student leadership is not to reflexively resort to headline-grabbing tactics designed to put people on the defensive, but to be able to diagnose what kind of action a particular situation requires. The Diamondback also has a distressing tendency to overlook another important fact: If student leaders respond to every idea and situation that we don't like with denunciations and protests, it undermines our credibility. Ultimately, most other community leaders will give up on trying to factor students into their thinking if they believe we cannot be reasoned with. And let us not forget either that, for all the visibility he gained, even Tim Daly had many a backroom negotiation that never made it to the pages of the newspaper.

Soon enough we will see another SGA election, another class graduate, some new and some old faces among graduate student leaders, the university senators and RHA. I want to take this opportunity to strongly encourage all those and other leaders to trust their instincts and learn from other people's successes and mistakes. Sometimes the bullhorn and the bully pulpit are what's needed, the power of protest and publicity. Other times, a quiet meeting with a serious tone, a measured approach and a calm, reasoned discussion will produce better results. It is the ability to gauge that difference, and take the right action for each situation, that separates the good student leaders from the truly great ones. Do what's right, and don't be lured by comparisons to the past or armchair analysis.

Devin Ellis is a graduate student in public policy, a member of the Graduate Student Government and the University System Student Council, and former member of the Student Government Association. He can be reached at ellis.devin@gmail.com.

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