»Faith Johnson
–Guest Writer
The value of our Student Government Association should not be put into question unless it is shown that the SGA is no longer beneficial to the student body.
Suggesting that the SGA is no longer benefitting the student body because the legislation that it works on does not compare to a school that is multiple times larger is an unfair comparison.
However, taking a look into the legislation that the SGA is working on and looking into the aspects as to why the legislation is being addressed is a more advantageous route in getting to the bottom of things.
An example of this would be to look into the minutes of an SGA meeting.
According to Kelsie Brewer, the executive secretary of the SGA, the minutes are posted on the SGA site the week following the meeting after they have been voted on and made official.
On April 17, there was legislation voted on that included the Justice selection committee, Senate dress code, an appreciation certificate for the Physical Plant for doing a task that Senator Thornton was going to ask them to do but they did it before he could, and legislation to place an outside corkboard for advertising organizational events in Greek Village.
All of which passed except for the dress code. As for the introduced legislation, there were two pieces of legislation and an act addressing the SGA specifically. When speaking with SGA president Jesse Brewer about the changes in the SGA during the election period he expressed, “We are trying to make smaller steps to have a long term effect for the positive.”
There were other pieces of legislation introduced on the 17th as well. Senator Gray made a resolution to send a formal request to the Office of Information Technology to update the computers in the Sundquist computer lab. Senator de Moss submitted a resolution to ask the Physical Plant to assemble smoking facilities across campus. These are in addition to other resolutions that were submitted for a total of seven.
While building the foundations for a more solid future, there are also resolutions for requests that the student body would benefit from in the short term. These requests, like updating the computers in Sundquist and assembling smoking facilities, the student body will see and those that use them will appreciate.
As a student body we may not see a lot of what the SGA does, but that does not mean it is not working. One semester of legislation that seems to be quiet can mean multiple things, and in this case it appears that the SGA is attempting to make things better for the future.
So that when there is seemingly less interest in the SGA it could be because the SGA is attempting to make itself a little more accountable when it comes to who is being voted in. I know that I personally would be more likely to be involved with the SGA if I knew it was not just a popularity contest; which by the way, it is not.
As with anything associated with a government, become educated and do not take what you read as the cold hard truth. Research and discover for yourself.
