Lack of enthusiastic leadership leaves organizations in jeopardy

Shane Wade
Opinion Editor

It’s that time of year again: Student organizations are beginning to hold elections to fill leadership positions for the next year.

But how effective can such a process be when so many members of our student body suffer from membership apathy? Although, VCU prides itself on having more than 400 student organizations, it doesn’t take much searching to see the lack of active involvement among members of certain organizations.

Organizations might boast of their 100 odd due-paying members, but what activities of substance and meaning do they engage in that have a positive effect on the VCU community?

Student apathy ruins strong organizations, and that student apathy abounds because of weak leadership.

The leadership of an organization goes beyond the routine maintenance of fundraising and continuing past activities. Maintaining the status quo of an organization isn’t as taxing as fulfilling the presidential duty of growing and expanding the group to a new height.

For a student organization to be truly successful, they must continually thrive, even through changes in leadership. A year’s worth of faltering leadership could spell doom for the organization’s future as junior members become dejected by poor focus and limp direction.

True leadership is for those that seek it; too often have I seen leadership ballots passed about with candidates running unopposed, or worse yet, empty slots waiting to be filled by any willing member with a pulse.

Such elections do not inspire confidence. They depress the group, display the weakness of the organization and expose an atmosphere of apathetic decay. These elections are not elections intended to elect leaders; they are intended to elect replacements.

A viable excuse for this apathy could well be dependent on an individual student’s need to focus on their academic endeavors, but that excuse ignores the value of having a well-rounded education, full of both academic and extracurricular success.

Though we may enthusiastically join organizations, we shrink at the thought of taking the next step into commitment. Too often do we college students forget the hours of volunteer work and club activities we trudged through in high school in order to get to college.

But just because we’re here now doesn’t mean we should become complacent. Future employers will look past our classes, grades and basic involvement in extracurricular activities. They’ll want to see that we’re capable of more than paying dues and that we’ve taken an active role in supporting a cause in which we believe.

Students: Be active members in your organization, have the courage to run for elected office and prevent an air of apathy from stunting the growth of a strong organization.