GLLORIA SHELLER
Perspectives Assistant
It has been nice walking around and seeing all the spirit for SGA these past weeks. While, the sidewalk chalk washed away in the rain and the rowdy crowds in Convocation are sure to be seen less and less since the SGA elections are over, I hope such excitement for student government doesn’t completely cease.
No one likes a politician who campaigns well, but doesn’t follow through. The nation’s president rarely steps in front of a camera without a “go get ‘em” attitude and facial expression to match. Well, students should expect no less from the people they have elected into SGA.
The first experience I had with SGA, left a sour taste in my mouth. I walked into a random blue office in the TCC to ask for a pen so I could sign my overseas contract in the next room, only to be greeted by expressionless faces. It wasn’t what came to mind when I thought of SGA.
Naively, I envisioned a polished politician with a smile painted on his face, emerging from a desk, ready to shake my hand and eagerly offer me a writing utensil. I don’t think that picture is far off from our recently-elected SGA President, Kevin Mills.
Hopefully, after a rough election, he realizes that people are expecting him to be as friendly and attentive as he was during his campaign.
Not to say that I want the president stopping by my dorm randomly throughout the week, like he did during his campaign, but being friendly when seeing students around campus or stopping into club to check up on how things are going might be nice.
A change really wouldn’t even cost any money. Maybe, the housing senators, whose duties are specified in the SGA Constitution, could swing by the residence halls simply to let residents know what’s going on around campus and in SGA. Or they could just at least let people know that housing senators exist.
SGA doesn’t need to hold more special events but they do need to make sure they are doing their job (representing the entire student body) by getting to know the students.
At a big state college, I would expect that student government might not be directly involved in its student’s college lives because it’s virtually impossible to do such a thing.
But Pepperdine is not that big. Being closer with the student body should not seem like an insurmountable task. In fact, I’d hope that it would sound fun for the SGA to get to know even more people on campus.
The sole purpose of SGA, according to its Constitution, is to serve “as an intermediary between Pepperdine University administration and students.” But there is a rift between SGA and Pepperdine students because of the way people receive information about SGA.
See, in the real world, the media are all over political happenings. Actually the media are all over just about everything, but here at Peppedine, media services that a lot of people care about are limited.
Many college students are more peeved than excited to see the Public Relations e-mails that they get every day, so they just delete them. This means that SGA needs to work harder to project their image to the student body in a more attractive way.
On the student side, they must also work a little harder at showing SGA that they want change and they want to be involved in the decision making process. SGA can’t keep up their cheerleader like spirit if students are unresponsive and apathetic toward what goes on on campus.
Yes, SGA needs to appeal to the masses. On the flip-side, students also need to give them positive feedback after SGA has tried to accommodate them.
It is in the best interest SGA to keep up the spirit. Who cares if it seems like we are back in high school with the excessive amount of pep from SGA? It’s better than the student body being mad because they don’t know what is going on.
As one of the most important groups on campus, SGA ought to stand out and be loud. That’s the way it will get the attention of the students.
04-06-2006