By: Quinell Ming

It’s just about time for spring classes to commence and for the wheels of this new semester to begin rolling at its optimum speed, and while most of us are still preparing our minds for the incoming load of academic work, some of us are also getting ready for the challenge in successfully completing our 2020-2021 tenure in student leadership.

If you’re no stranger to student governance at our university, you’d known that this is practically the end of the road for all executives. With elections right around the corner, there is little time left for student leaders to focus on things other than their exit from their various offices.

However, if you should contemplate with me on the continuity of these member organisations, our thoughts might connect on a very significant question, “who is next?”. Who will pick up the mantle and continue the progression of these organisations and for some, prevent death by digitalisation?

And when our government, the United Student Movement (USM) comes to mind, this question will arise again and with a higher level of importance because, like the monarch in the midst of the commonwealth, the USM is the bolt that connects us all, the standard by which we all should govern by – well, so they say.

So far, their performance has been one to think about and depending on your judgement of their heretofore functioning, unearthing answers to questions such as, “Who will be the next appointed and elected 16,” “Who will be the next president,” or “Who will advise them?”, will either be as difficult as getting your grade changed on time or as easy as uploading an assignment via Aeorion system.

If there is one thing that I’m growing in certainty of is where they might not come from.

However, while I’m sure that President Haye has begun scouting his successor and has probably found her…or him, I’m not certain of how visible that option is to the general population of students. Maybe there are developing plans to recycle and reshuffle members, which is not always a great idea but, we keep praying.

All that is left for us to do is wait, wait to see the unknown faces that will pop up during the election period with newly discovered and untameable zest to become executives of the movement.

This time let’s hope most of them are actually fit to lead.

The views expressed in this article are entirely the writer’s and not those of the Hilltop Trumpet.