At what point do we escape high school?

For some, it is the first night spent on campus, away from your parents. For others, it is the first all-nighter spent writing a term paper. For several members of the University’s Student Government Association (SGA), it seems like they are still waiting for that period in their lives to pass.

This inability to “grow up” has haunted the SGA throughout its history. A quick look through The Chronicle’s archives shows that the SGA congresses being described as, amongst other things, “someone jumping from a plane and finding out that their parachute was replaced with rocks,” as a place where “partisan nonsense has stalled normal proceeding and would be deemed completely unprofessional in any other environment,” and members need to be reminded “to keep personal conflicts out of meetings.”

This petty, playtime government is reminiscent, at best, of high school cliques and, at worst, U.S. Congress. This immaturity reached its pinnacle last night, when insider politics stalled budget proceeding for two hours as the SGA attempted to sort out a ridiculously convoluted presidential election process.

These were two hours that could have been spent doing what is the fundamental goal of the SGA-helping out the student body. Two hours during which they tried to force the hearing into executive section so that the other clubs wouldn’t be able to see how truly petty certain members of the SGA can be.

SGA is never quite as petty as when this presidential election process comes into play. Of the past four elections, three (the 2006 and 2005 elections, as well as the current one) were plagued with what can be best put as “eligibility” issues.

2005’s election was marred by questions about then-Senator David Levielle’s right to run, as he had been removed from the Senate after two unexcused absences. The ensuing chaos ultimately led to a runoff election, which was ultimately won by Benjamin Solis, who by most accounts had won by avoiding any address of the controversy.

The following year, most likely the result of the previous year’s fiasco, went off essentially without a hitch, with Peter DiSilvio winning the election.

After a year-long hiatus, controversy again reared its ugly head, as DiSilvio’s less-than-stellar academic record-he was unable to obtain the requisite 2.5 G.P.A.-deemed him ineligible to run, which, as we all remember, lead to one of the most ridiculous things to happen here at the University, the “STOP THE VOTE” campaign, headed by “humor” magazine NONSENSE. Current SGA President Brent Weitzberg ended up winning in spite of this (pardon the pun) “nonsense,” and continues to serve today.

With that history lesson in mind, we come back to this year, we come back to Tuesday’s meeting and, not surprisingly, we come back to the pettiness.

For those who are unaware, Senator DiSilvio, much like his predecessor, Senator Levielle, was removed from the Senate for two unexcused absences and much like his predecessor, was reinstated, and thus allowed to run again. Two hours of the meeting were spent doing this.

And for what?

Senator Jared Berry, after a marathon Senate session, made those two hours obsolete, citing a little known election rule which states that a candidate must be a senator the entire length of the campaign in order to run.

Two hours wasted for nothing.

Two hours wasted bickering back and forth, “talking tennis” harkening back to the SGA of years past. Two hours wasted showing a large group of people how to simultaneously talk out of one’s mouth and rear end. Two hours wasted…