The Residence Halls Association has consistently proven itself to be the most immature and impotent student organization at the university.

Yesterday, RHA President Sumner Handy wrote a letter to the editor (“Patriarchal logo,” Oct. 3) announcing his campaign to change the university’s athletics logo to stop it from resembling a phallic symbol. He also decried our university’s and American society’s patriarchy, citing that our university president is “an aged male” and “the U.S. Congress is 83.7-percent male, according to Wikipedia.”

Maybe he should have also visited Wikipedia’s article for “penis” so he knows what one looks like. Instead, he merely ejaculated, “As a student leader, I am in a position to effect change on the campus.”

He’s absolutely right. And he’s blowing his opportunity.

Last year, we had one of the worst student housing crises in university history. Hundreds of students were kicked off the campus with little warning. The RHA facilitated a dialogue between students and members of the Department of Resident Life, which accomplished nothing besides informing students that little could be done to help them. The Student Government Association, on the other hand, erected a tent city on McKeldin Mall that attracted camera crews and reporters from around the area. The high visibility caused by the SGA’s well-thought-out demonstration helped bring immediate recognition of the issue by the Board of Regents.

RHA Senator Sarah Ahmad, one sane ship in a sea of idiocy, asked why the RHA was overshadowed by the SGA on an issue central to their purpose. Maybe the group goes limp in the face of real problems because of electile dysfunction: RHA executives are elected by members of the organization instead of by the student body at large, rewarding sycophants who excel at internal politicking.

The RHA worked with Dining Services to create the All-Campus Meal plan, which supposedly allows students the freedom to eat anywhere on the campus. It is incredibly cumbersome to figure out how the plan works. The difficulty seems designed to conceal the fact that the All-Campus Meal plan is incredibly unfair. If you purchase “All-Campus Plan One” and use it to buy a $12.99 cheese pizza at Sbarro, it will actually cost you $80.02. I am not making this up – a cheese pizza will cost you more than $80. Visit the Dining Services website and do the math for yourself.

Raw deals for students come about because RHA members have repeatedly shown an inability to stand firm in opposition to members of the university administration and fight for what is best for students.

There was one exception last semester when the RHA passed a resolution recommending that Resident Life ease penalties for students caught using marijuana. The move was so unprecedented that The Diamondback wrote a somewhat appreciative editorial saying, “It is refreshing … to see the RHA vote against the desire of Resident Life.”

Shame on The Diamondback for premature congratulations…

Two days later, the RHA staged an ego-fueled demonstration outside The Diamondback’s office in protest of the editorial because it allegedly misrepresented its relationship with Resident Life. I watched them for hours as I did homework in the dining hall. The protesters alienated students by shouting at passersby through megaphones and squandered the $300 the RHA used to print out cryptic leaflets. Then-RHA President Mike LaBattaglia said the demonstration “seemed very reminiscent of civil rights-era protesting.” Are you kidding me? He compared a club’s picket of a college newspaper editorial to black people’s struggles to overcome hundreds of years of racism, oppression and lynching. Is it possible to be more ignorant?

This is my third year as a Resident Assistant. I understand how student activities can bring about a sense of belonging at a campus even as large as this university’s. Over the years, I’ve convinced a number of my residents to become RHA senators or area council members. This year when my residents asked if they should join the RHA, I simply told them, “No,” that their time would be best used elsewhere.

Sumner, members of the RHA: Wake up! We need you to stop thrusting yourselves into embarrassment and to start helping the rest of us out.

Benjamin Johnson is a senior physics major. He can be reached at katsuo@umd.edu.