The Student Government Association cannot get its act together, literally. At a time when the University is suffering from extreme budget cuts and awaiting a potential reduction to a two-year University, tempers flared and voices quivered when representatives of the student body held meetings to discuss when to hold said meetings.
Last week, at its first meeting of the semester, the student senate discussed the question of when to hold its weekly meetings. Several senators took issue with their meetings beginning at 4 p.m. on Monday afternoons when several were enrolled in classes that did not finish until 4:30.
When the idea was proposed that the meetings be pushed back to 4:30, senators also holding board positions in sororities and fraternities objected on the grounds that their Greek meetings, held immediately after SGA meetings, could not be rescheduled.
The vice president suspended discussion and urged the senate to consider any possible alternatives to the current meeting time.
This week, the senate saw a heated discussion on the same subject. Several senators came prepared with their own suggestions for meeting times and rationales to support them, but none of them were prepared to debate one another.
One senator argued on behalf of the freshmen senators who supposedly have no control over their schedules and, consequently, could not make it to the meetings. Another senator argued freshmen should have more control over their schedules than most considering the number of classes available to them. One senator said he was leaving early from work to attend meetings and could earn more money if the time was pushed back. Of course, a senator representing the Greeks repeated the argument from the previous week.
No one conceded to another person’s point, and the only remotely productive idea thrown into the fray was the suggestion that discussion be suspended and the senators e-mail his or her available times to the vice president so the information could be compiled to make a decision at the next meeting.
With Labor Day coming next week, the senate will not reach a decision on when to meet until Sept. 14 at the earliest. Of course, the entire senate will not be able to meet until the following week at best – more than a month into the semester.
We believe this discussion will have been a ridiculous waste of time.
The senators and executive board of the SGA were elected and appointed to serve in the best interest of the student body, but so far, they have only worked toward their own ends – making more money, leaving their more Greek organizations unscathed or just making more time for class.
Of course, a student’s education should come first, but being a member of a struggling University’s student government demands responsibility. The issue of when to meet should have been finalized before the semester even began, but the SGA failed to meet once since the end of the spring semester.
Rather than analyzing a 30 minute difference in meeting times, perhaps the senators and executive board of the SGA should analyze whether or not they are actually serving the best interest of the student body. Perhaps they should analyze whether or not they belong in student government at all.
