I am writing in response to the article “Sack SAC!” which appeared in the November 3 issue of The College Voice. This article was full of “misinformed and baseless attacks” that spotlighted the ignorance with which the article was written.
I am going to use this response to combat the confusion between what is fact and what is fiction. This article was intended to be satirical but in my eyes it was unnecessarily drivel and slanderous. The writer of this opinion piece added fuel to a pointless fire.
The Student Activities Council (not Committee) has done a great job in an attempt to cater to the “immensely diverse student body with incredibly varied interests”. One lesson that was passed on from past SAC chairs is the fact that you cannot please everyone on this campus with one event but rather with an assortment of activities.
SAC is comprised of many different committees that plan activities all across the spectrum.
The Off-Campus Committee plans excursions to Holiday Bowl, Laser tag and Koto for dinner. The FNL committee puts together a concert every Friday night.
The Variety Committee puts together cookie decorating, game shows and traditional Cro dances, which are packed every time they are planned.
SAC also has a Fundraising committee that plans events with the goal of having a great FLORALIA.
Co-sponsorship is also a main aspect of SAC because we support every other club on this campus financially and that fosters diversity in events.
The only factual thought in this opinion article was when he states many students on the Connecticut College campus are quick to pass judgment on organizations such as SGA and SAC without attending a single meeting or doing research and informing themselves of the purpose of the aforementioned organizations.
The writer of “Sack SAC!” based his statements on his personal experiences because in my time on SAC I have never seen him at a single SAC meeting. Furthermore, it has been greatly advertised that Open Forum occurs every Sunday at 7 PM in the 1941 room thus if he had brought these opinions to the appropriate setting, they would have been properly addressed rather than a passive-aggressive exchange in print. The basis of Open Forum is so that any student on this campus can express any concerns or ideas for future events.
If anyone has suggestions for events and activities that SAC should plan then feel free to email sac@conncoll.edu and we will not hesitate to plan events that students want. That is why we are called the STUDENT Activities Council, to make sure your college experience is a great one.
Sincerely,
John Meade
Chair of SAC
If you take the defensive whenever you receive criticisms, you’ll be unable to see anything as feedback – this feedback can help you work toward positive change. So if students see SAC as not representing their interests, no matter how inappropriately they choose to express it, your job is to figure out how to fix the system. We have this issue at the Voice, too, but in the end, as an editorial staff we acknowledge that we’ve dedicated ourselves to this activity. If we’re told something doesn’t work right, it’s our job to figure out how to make our readers happy and represented. It’s not about how much we work but how effective our product is.
The school does appreciate the enormous amount of time and energy you put into what you do. Now look beyond it – is that energy going into the right things? Is your money being spent in the right places? Are you satisfying your consumers?
I did not see my response as a defense, it is my right as a student to respond to anything written in the Voice. Another reason why I responded also because there were so many untruths in this article I saw it as an opportunity as SAC chair to put the truth out there.