Spring Break
More of the same from the SGA
Issue date: 9/18/08
Last year, Student Council wrote a new constitution and renamed itself the Student Government Association (SGA) with the promise of a new beginning without the bureaucratic infighting and corruption that had come to define the Council. They said they were fed up with the useless bureaucracy of the old system that caused them to spin their wheels whenever they wanted to get something done. Student government was to become something relevant - or so they promised.
But here we are, at the start of a new year, seeing the same problems we have always seen. Effectively, the SGA did not exist until Tuesday night's meeting, as the new constitution's bylaws had yet passed. Without bylaws, there were no committees, which are the structural centerpiece that gives the SGA their nominal authority and influence. It was not until this past Tuesday night, after passing their bylaws, that they finally formed the committees.
According to the Constitution, freshmen class elections would not occur for another five weeks. The SGA at least recognizes that this is unacceptable as it would result in an only partially functioning student government for the first two months of this year.
Consequently, the SGA has established an ad-hoc committee to run the election. The ad-hoc committee was established instead of the regular committee because the new Constitution provides for such a loop-hole. For a body that is merely months old, the SGA already has many of its faithful adherents characteristically unwilling to forgo any of its sacred rules for the sake of real progress.
The only problem is that this committee will be composed of many of last year's election committee members who have already proved their ineptitude.
The Committee for Student Elections (CSE) is broken. In last year's executive elections, every single candidate was disqualified for breaking rules, from failing to turn in their campaign finance report on time to campaigning during the election period. After a painful appeals process, the disqualifications were upheld and CSE ran a second election. That time around, no one was disqualified. But because of the time delay, the losers couldn't drop down to run in class elections like they should be able to do. The SGA's decision to have some of the same people run this year's freshmen election is, at the very least, perplexing.
But here we are, at the start of a new year, seeing the same problems we have always seen. Effectively, the SGA did not exist until Tuesday night's meeting, as the new constitution's bylaws had yet passed. Without bylaws, there were no committees, which are the structural centerpiece that gives the SGA their nominal authority and influence. It was not until this past Tuesday night, after passing their bylaws, that they finally formed the committees.
According to the Constitution, freshmen class elections would not occur for another five weeks. The SGA at least recognizes that this is unacceptable as it would result in an only partially functioning student government for the first two months of this year.
Consequently, the SGA has established an ad-hoc committee to run the election. The ad-hoc committee was established instead of the regular committee because the new Constitution provides for such a loop-hole. For a body that is merely months old, the SGA already has many of its faithful adherents characteristically unwilling to forgo any of its sacred rules for the sake of real progress.
The only problem is that this committee will be composed of many of last year's election committee members who have already proved their ineptitude.
The Committee for Student Elections (CSE) is broken. In last year's executive elections, every single candidate was disqualified for breaking rules, from failing to turn in their campaign finance report on time to campaigning during the election period. After a painful appeals process, the disqualifications were upheld and CSE ran a second election. That time around, no one was disqualified. But because of the time delay, the losers couldn't drop down to run in class elections like they should be able to do. The SGA's decision to have some of the same people run this year's freshmen election is, at the very least, perplexing.
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