The Standard

Issue date: 10/23/07 Section: Opinion

There are other major concerns that I have, and ask the students to consider: the SGA constitution states that each senator is required to work one office hour a week; the idea is to keep senators involved in their work with SGA, as well as keep the office staffed. If senators do not work this hour, it is counted as an absence, and after three absences, they are no longer allowed to serve as senators. I wrote an e-mail to the president and vice-president, asking where the office hours were being recorded; I never received a response. I then asked the sergeant-at-arms, who is responsible for recording attendance, about the situation - she informed me that she had been instructed not to record office hours, that "we weren't doing that this year," I believe was the exact phrase. It strikes me as odd - does the administration think it can just ignore its own constitution when it sees fit?

I have been in SGA since I started here in 2002; I have seen several different administrations, some were effective, some were not, some I could work with and some I had no choice but to work against. I have never before met an administration whose banner is "we won't make a difference anyway." If SGA is to continue to function, it needs to do so under a more active role, not through quickie meetings and general apathy. We need to uphold the students' voices, even if it disagrees with what administrators want, or else what are we here for? Why bother putting money into this body if the most we're going to do is start polls and give commendations? SGA needs to either serve as a representative body, or else give its money back to the students and go home.

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