The straw finally broke the camel's back Monday as the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Academic Assembly proved once and for all that it does not represent students and that restructuring the organization would benefit all involved.

After conducting a survey, which analyzed the student body's views about the current drop/add policy, the Academic Research and Action committee shared its findings at the assembly meeting.

Rather than acknowledging that 54.5 percent of students surveyed disagreed with assembly and think the drop period should be longer than the add period, assembly voted to send back the survey for further investigation, citing that students were not adequately informed to make an educated decision.

So what exactly constitutes an educated decision? Assembly needs to recognize that the majority of students understand the drop/add period policies, but they are more concerned with other matters, such as rising tuition.

The quick dismissal of the results came in part because of the lack of student responses, a mere 405 students. Of about 35,000 undergraduate students, 5,000 were part of the random sample. Of the 5,000 chosen, assembly was able to analyze 405 responses based on a survey consisting of nine multiple-choice questions and one open-ended question.

Of course, a true representative sample of the student population might consist of responses from a larger portion of the student population.

These actions beg the question: What was the point of doing the survey in the first place? Surely if assembly makes enough attempts, eventually it will find results to its liking.

To the assembly's astonishment, the majority of students surveyed either said the drop period should be longer than the add period or no changes should be made to the policy.

As it stands, the drop and add periods end on the same date, but assembly members think the add period should be one day longer than the drop period.

If the drop/add policy were a concern among assembly members, then perhaps they should have given more consideration to the details of their survey process. It is the assembly's responsibility to find the most effective means of representing the student body.

But realistically, what are the chances that assembly will make the necessary changes so it can adequately represent students anytime soon? Not likely at all.