SGA: Student Government Ambivalence?

Could you fill in these names? Photo from web.

Have you ever asked yourself the question, “What does SGA do for me?” or perhaps, “Who the heck are the students that serve on SGA?” or even, “Am I happy with the efforts and accomplishments of our student government?” Overall, I’ve felt I don’t know the students who represent me. Yes, I’ve looked up their names and class years on the college’s website, but I don’t truly know what they stand for or what their intentions are as representatives of the student body. I can see a disconnect between SGA and the larger community it serves, and I think it’s time to identify what has caused this disconnect so we can begin to bring about change.

My first questions are: Who are the students that serve on SGA? Do most students on campus know? I only discovered the full SGA executive board and assembly after I looked it up for this article. I conducted a brief survey with about twenty participants to see how well other members of the student body knew SGA. I asked each person if they could name the SGA president. Only four of the twenty could identify our student body president (Diane Essis ’12), and it wasn’t until the eighth person that I could finally find someone who could answer the question. This was extremely disappointing, and while I could blame the student body, I don’t think that would provide an answer to the problem.

What piece of advice can I give SGA to find a solution? My favorite high school teacher once told me a wonderful expression: Passion begets passion. When the members of SGA go out and are passionate about what they are doing, (i.e. Senator of the Month of October Neal Tan ’15 going from door to door to collect signatures for the petition against Chiquita bananas) students get riled up by signing the petition and showing support for the initiative.

SGA reps: if the people aren’t coming to you, go to them. Knock on doors! Be the traveling salesman of yesteryear. Ask students what they want with your voice! You’d be surprised how productive and successful verbal communication can be (especially when it’s face-to-face). Invite a resident of your dorm to an SGA meeting to see what happens rather than writing it in tiny print at the bottom of the “SGA On the Can” and hoping someone will show up. Engage with your fellow students and maybe they will engage with you. Taking the effort to make connections with your peers may also help with getting more voting participation in student body elections.

It’s not enough to simply be elected and think that earning a vote from your peers means that you know everything that they would like to see done on our campus. This leads me to another pressing question: are the accomplishments and efforts of our SGA as significant as they ought to be? In my opinion, they are not. Are bananas and bottled water the only things we care about? Can the “outdated language” or  “missing articles and clauses” in our constitution really be so confusing that they cause people to think it is okay to destroy their residence halls or break any of the other rules? I think not. The efforts that could go to this revision would be better spent trying to understand why so many students are expressing destructive behavior by trashing our residence halls, drinking to the point of extreme incoherency or breaking other rules and regulations on our campus. More time needs to be invested in identifying ways we can increase the level of respect for the rules, regulations and honor code on our campus as well as the level of accountability for those that do break these rules.

The idea of being a member of SGA has become too much of a title or a distinction. SGA members need to take a step down from these titles and remember why they have the positions they hold. They need to engage students more and ask them what they want way. A shift in the presence of the SGA on this campus can create a real shift in the overall atmosphere of our campus community. •