Column by Taylor Shelton

While sitting through a Student Government Senate meeting for the first time ever last week, I found it hard to believe just how many statements by SG senators started with “I don’t know as much as I should.” Regardless of the fact that these individuals were elected in order to serve in the best interests of the student body and should be some of the most educated students on this campus, I just couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that there are still people who don’t “get it.”

Anyone who knows me or has read my columns with any consistency knows that I consider the protection of our environment to be of utmost importance. What you’ll never find me saying is that I believe everyone should have the same priorities — someone who has trouble making sure they keep their grades up to maintain their scholarship money may not have time to go protest the logging of Robinson Forest or lobby SG for the implementation of a green fee. And one should never be faulted for that. There is a difference, however, in having different priorities and refusing to acknowledge the validity of others priorities.

It seems to me that those SG senators who “don’t know enough,” don’t have a good excuse like many of the students they supposedly represent. With the seemingly endless opportunities for self-enrichment on a university campus, how can any one of us, SG senator or not, claim ignorance about anything? It isn’t that we don’t know, it’s that we don’t care enough to know.

Anyone who is given a position of influence on this campus should be fully obligated to understand the importance and implications of each decision they are charged with making. From President Todd to the lowliest of SG senators, everyone should know exactly what they’re doing before assuming that they already do.

At last week’s SG meeting, the Senate voted to table both a resolution and an amendment regarding support for the student green fee, which was overwhelmingly supported by students in 2006, but has since been neglected by various higher-ups at UK.

The same senators who said they didn’t understand the issues also declared that students shouldn’t have to take responsibility for sustainability at UK. And while I agree with that general premise, had any of them taken the time to read any of the several Kernel articles from recent years about the green fee, they would have seen that students have been forced into a leadership role on sustainability due to the administration’s unwillingness to support or fund sustainability initiatives. A simple Google search would have brought all of that to light. But they obviously didn’t care enough to understand before professing their ideas as tantamount to all others.

For whatever reason, we all seem to be stricken with something along the lines of know-it-all syndrome. Rather than seeking out multiple sources of information, or even a single unbiased source, we all assume, based on our preconceptions of what things are good and what things are bad, that we know what is best for everyone else. So while I may be belaboring an unnecessary point, I think it is absolutely necessary that we recognize the importance of understanding.

Without this, we may never be able to understand why limiting the university’s carbon footprint benefits all students, or why having a diverse student body is good for more than just moving up in diversity rankings. Try asking someone what they think about those sometime; even if you don’t agree with them, maybe you’ll understand just a little bit more.