Governments are tricky things, if they are not watched carefully by all members of the represented group, elected officials can make promises that they do not intend to keep. Or, upon taking office, they might just find that it is too hard to buck the system and instead, they go with the flow and just keep passing new laws and rules and give up on their dreams of reforming the system.
Take our Student Government Association, I'm sure that none of the people in that organization would have felt, upon taking office, that it is far better to rule by "policy and not practice." But this is one of the few topics touched upon at their August 29th meeting. If you truly want to know, I feel that here is a dedicated group of students, who do not get enough attention for what they do and this seems to be bad.
When they do something that has a positive impact, it goes largely ignored or unpublicized. When they put pamphlets in everyone's mailbox, they just get thrown away, like so much junk mail. The average student seems to think that SGA passes budgets for their clubs and has a photocopier, which is true, but not the whole story.
Let's take a trip back to a cold night last February, when I can almost assure you that you were not at the debates for SGA officers. There couldn't have been more than thirty people there, which is not saying much for student involvement, but there was a sense of promise, of new beginnings. Greg Snow was running unopposed for Treasurer and he said that "SGA can't forget who it represents, it is the voice of the student body, but too often this is forgotten, SGA tends to be an elitist group which hinders the campus. . .I can't work alone, we need a change in organization and leadership, we need accessible leaders who will work with the students."
Kirsty Reidy, Vice President said that SGA needs to get "more input from undergrads. . .SGA Senators should take comments, write to students and find out what people think." She added "I don't see that happening now." And neither do I, not in D term when these officers took office and not yet, if not now, why not?
There also was some concern about the committees and how they are never heard from. They seemed to be discouraged at their lack of ability to get things done and this could also stem from little publicity and little student interest.
Cathy Connelly started her debate by saying that she has been involved in SGA for three years and that it "hurts me when people say that SGA does nothing, the only thing that we've done is get better." She stated that is was SGA's role to: "be an advocate for the student's needs, to get out there and be visible and the let people know where to go and to try to solve problems."
It was clear on that night that SGA was headed in a new direction and when these candidates won, it appeared that SGA was opening the door to a new era. Students would be approached and their feelings would be made known to the senators, who would go back and report the feelings of the community to the senate and act accordingly. But all that I have seen (and I have been looking) is senators in the SGA office, which is easy to get to, but a bit intimidating. It is not the same as senators writing to students, meeting in Riley Commons, dining halls or on the Quad to solicit opinions.
I am disappointed, I feel like the candidates that spoke to me may not have been telling me what they intended to do when they were speaking. I feel like I was told what they thought I would like to hear. If three of the executive officers ran on campaign platforms of opening up the government, then where is the change that seemed so promising.
Perhaps this frustration is rising again in the senate, Ryan Daly rose to speak last week and he stated; "SGA has many enthusiastic people, who are trying to make a difference, but we have a strange way of losing our ideas and losing our vision. We start setting goals, but often fall short."
This is disappointing and no number of pamphlets in my mailbox will fix this problem, but perhaps the bigger question is, does SGA want to fix its image? Only they know for sure, but we will all find out in the months to come.
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