BRITTANY YEAROUT
Staff Writer
SGA leaders are setting the wheels in motion to redefine their purpose for advocacy of student interests.
“We can advance your opinions and your will, in order to better your college experience,” said Junior President Brendan Groves.
SGA has the power to help if a student has ideas, complaints or just wants to be involved, according to Student Government President Leon Dixson.
“The primary goal for SGA is advocacy,” Dixson said. “Whether it’s for getting music in the Cafeteria, lobbying for visitation hours in the dorms or cheaper rates for counseling services, we are called to be activists for the student body.”
So far, SGA has held two meetings and upcoming events include elections that begin Wednesday Sept. 14 and a budget meeting Sept. 21.
SGA plans to be more active in supporting students who want to pass resolutions.
“We have the power to do many things,” Dixson said. “When SGA sees a problem we do research on how it can be improved, and then it’s voted on and passed by the Senate. So it’s a lot better to go through SGA for changes because it has more power behind it and the student would have a lot more support.”
SGA members have specific goals and improvements for the year, including advocating for more laundry machines in the dorms, atomic clocks for every classroom, an arcade in the HAWC and the possibility of investing in a safe low-risk mutual fund to accumulate more money.
SGA has received a lump of money in the past to spend aimlessly, Groves said.
“Under my administration for the juniors, we are going to try to invest SGA funds so we actually grow our funding instead of spend it,” Groves said. “We don’t want to expend it we want to use it for good purposes.”
In the past, SGA has had many resolutions that have passed, including improving parking spaces, but have not been enacted.
“This year we want to start keeping a running record of the resolutions that we pass,” Dixson said. “This way students can see what we are doing and help us out with the research or other ideas on how to improve the campus.”
Another work in progress for SGA is the improvement of its public relations.
“There are a lot of things that we have done that don’t get publicized,” Dixson said.
Among many other changes, SGA has advocated for the stairs by Towers, a beach bus, better visitation hours in the dorms, cheaper rates for counseling services and paid to fix the TV in the Sandbar.
This year, they will be doing a number of things to encourage student participation: surveys, providing screen names, a suggestion box and a Web site that is nearing fruition.
“Later this month, we will have an SGA suggestion box in which students can use to offer suggestions or problems for which SGA can write resolutions,” said Dixson. “Students whose ideas are selected and passed by the Senate will be entered into a monthly drawing for a prize.”
These will not only give students better access to SGA but will also encourage them to get more involved.
“It would help if we had more student involvement because we could help them even more if we got more feedback,” Dixson said.
Students also can get involved with SGA through its committees. The list will soon be posted along with the chairman of the committee and a phone number where he or she can be reached.
Students involved in SGA said that there is a difference between them and other organizations.
SGA leaves permanent footprints while other organizations leave temporary marks, according to Groves.
“I love that SGA is an organization of activism. It’s a bunch of people who really strive to be involved and leave a legacy and make a difference,” Groves said. “We have an opportunity to change the campus instead of just being a part of the campus.”
09-08-2005