Imagine insulting your peers and then expecting them to respond to your editorial with words of agreement.

That’s how I felt when I had read the ISD Editorial Board’s piece on Student Government and the body’s sharp criticism and pointed questions of the university’s administration during a meeting earlier this month. I take great issue with the ISD Editorial Board’s perspective that the university administration is the “boss” of Student Government; Student Government represents the students better than the editors of the ISD Editorial Board.

Our senators have engaged in meaningful discussion and debate over these last few weeks that represent the many perspectives of our peers, including those who want to be here on campus.

Those questions that the Board takes issue with came from students, including myself. I asked my senator to question whether behavioral psychologists were consulted because behavioral psychologists have raised serious concerns about students’ abilities to conform to public health recommendations. I also asked my senator to ask that question because I am still waiting to hear back from the radically accessible Senior Vice President of Student Affairs Toyia Younger when I reached out with the same question.

I know other senators simply asked questions that were raised by other students. I am confused by what message the Editorial Board is attempting to send to Student Government and, by extension, the students themselves with this latest editorial.

Nowhere is it clear that Student Government and the administration should have a healthy working relationship. I believe there’s a few pages in a history book in Parks Library about college campuses in the 1960s that might be insightful to the Editorial Board about students’ relationships with governing bodies.

I’d rather have our student leaders stick up for students and their concerns rather than being sycophants seeking only to add to their list of references.

The ISD Editorial Board needs to recognize they do not have a monopoly on criticism though they can certainly keep theirs on petty and condescending pieces like the one I and my peers had to suffer through.

Students have a right to criticize their administration and that’s what we did, via Student Government. It just would have been nice if President Wendy Wintersteen stuck around for open forum to hear it from us directly.

Brennan Goodman is a second year student in the College of Veterinary Medicine.