Those of you who have followed this page in the past have become accustomed to our end-of-the-year bashing of the Inter-Residence Hall Association.

This organization, which represents all the dorms on campus, has repeatedly failed to accomplish anything of note during its one-year terms.

This year we are trying something different: bashing them before they’ve even gotten out of the gate.

Seriously, they argued over calling parts of Old RCA “Bricktown”? This is the most important thing to argue about? While this discussion was going down the Department of Residence decided that the Towers ought to be going down too, and it made that decision without any input from IRHA.

The past few years of IRHA legislation can be boiled down into two main categories — paying for things and whining. In 2000, IRHA whined about the policy of restricting mixed genders from sharing rooms late at night. In 2002, it passed a bill whining about not being consulted on the 24-hour door locking in the dorms.

And now in 2004, its three pieces of legislation have all been whining about one policy or another. This complaining hasn’t accomplished anything in the past. It is unlikely to suddenly start working now.

IRHA needs to undergo a paradigm shift. Instead of writing resolutions after the fact, it needs to get involved before the controversy starts.

The Student Advisory Council is a step in the right direction, involving students from all Department of Residence managed living areas in the decision-making process.

Questions still need to be answered about how these students will be selected. If they don’t represent their constituencies, the Council will serve no purpose. If they are passive individuals looking to pad their resumes, the Council will provide the Department of Residence the ability to get a rubber stamp from students on any decision it makes.

Some IRHA members feel that the Student Advisory Council would be usurping the main responsibilities of the Association. That may be true, but it cannot be much worse than the utter lack of communication that exists between students and the Department of Residence.

The editorial board is extending the olive branch. If IRHA can move past the whine-and-dime legislation and get students some real input on residence hall policies, we won’t criticize it for its lack of accomplishments.

But if this process stalls and once again residence hall students are left with the results of an ineffective government, we’ll be seeing you again in the spring.