Toxic. Harmful. Exclusionary. Cliquey.

Friendly. Inclusive. Holistic. Transparent.

For those in Student Government, the aforementioned adjectives can be used to describe the environment in which senators and cabinet members operate — depending on whom you ask.

While all are dedicated to students under the guise of their positions, serious territorial undertones have threatened the legislative and executive ability for our elected officials to serve.

There was a reason that Student Government changed its name from Government of the Student Body years ago. It’s not about the Senate. It’s not about the Cabinet. It’s not about the president or the vice president.

It’s about the students.

Our current Student Government has forgotten that.

Wednesday’s Senate meeting reflected a Student Government not representative of our goals as a university, or the Principles of Community that it helped create in 2007 and now claims to espouse.

This is not to say that Student Government doesn’t serve its students or do a lot of things right. But infighting has gotten in the way of its fullest potential. This is unacceptable. The students of Iowa State deserve more.

On Tuesday, Director of Residency Dozmen Lee created an 11-minute Snapchat video discussing his distaste for Speaker Cody Woodruff, who is also running for Student Government president, as well as what he perceives as the many flaws in the governing body.

“Y’all want to know what the biggest problem of Student Government is?” Lee asks in the video. “It’s not the cliquiness of the group or the self-righteous, pretentious attitude. It’s the fact that people are just so f*cking fake.

“Rather than tell the truth and be honest with each other, we all go behind each other’s backs and act like we’re homies or we’re friends, or that we’re cool with someone, but most of us can’t f*cking stand each other. It’s just the truth of it.”

This, understandably, riled up many of the senators and cabinet members. Some agreed with Lee’s claims but said that they didn’t appreciate the ways in which he made his voice heard. Others just couldn’t see his perspective.

No matter the fact, there is divisiveness within Student Government and it isn’t new. There are people who feel as if their voice isn’t heard, and if it is, it is marginalized or ignored.

There are also people who love Student Government and feel as if it has positively impacted their Iowa State experience.

All of these truths can exist in the same space. All of these experiences are valid and deserve to be considered and acted upon. But it cannot be made at the expense of the student body.

The Senate spent nearly an hour Wednesday night talking to Lee during an open forum.

An individual had come to the meeting to talk about the benefits of Grammarly — an online grammar checking, spell checking, and plagiarism detection platform — but he had to leave midway through the debate to go home and take care of his child. This is not OK.

Infighting and egos got in the way of the students. Is this our Student Government?

Change does not happen instantly, and it can be difficult to address systematic social structures that have and will continue to plague the environments in which we exist. And productive change cannot happen during a heated, hurtful and high-stress Senate meeting.

Student Government: Use this as an opportunity to address conflict and find solutions to long-standing issues. Create the space for senators and cabinet members to be heard. Create the space for them to get along. Above all, do better.

The student body deserves it.