A Word from the SGA
Last week's News-Letter Editorial, titled "Waiting on the SGA," offered a passive-aggressive critique of the JHU Student Government Association (SGA) that distorts the truth about the important work the SGA has accomplished this year. As representatives of the student body, we feel an obligation to correct The News-Letter's inaccuracies so that there can be a clearer understanding of exactly what the SGA has been doing.
The News-Letter asserts in their Editorial, "Because of the lack of any action, or any news of possible action on the part of the SGA, this page thought SGA had not been meeting. Our mistake." Yet at the end of the article, they write, "This page is not attempting to be overly critical, nor is it alleging that all members of the SGA are failing their constituents." The Editorial fails to substantiate its incredulous claim that there has been a lack of "any action" on the part of the SGA. Their two main critiques - on the lack of updates for the SGA Twitter account and the cuteness of the Senior Spotlight e-mails - are cherry-picked examples that ignore the multitude of other services SGA provides. We hope that the readers of The News-Letter will allow us to correct last week's distortions.
Since the beginning of the school year, the SGA has implemented several measures to improve its transparency. It would seem obvious to most people that through the acts of creating, designing, and maintaining an updated Web site for the first time in three years, the SGA has clearly made an effort to engage more with the student body and increase its transparency. While the Web site is not complete, it is better than nothing - which, for those of us who are seniors is what we've had to deal with since coming to JHU in the first place. As far as missing meeting minutes go, minutes are delayed by at least a week so that they can be approved by a majority senate vote. Delays by three weeks are of simple human error and can be easily fixed.
The News-Letter asserts in their Editorial, "Because of the lack of any action, or any news of possible action on the part of the SGA, this page thought SGA had not been meeting. Our mistake." Yet at the end of the article, they write, "This page is not attempting to be overly critical, nor is it alleging that all members of the SGA are failing their constituents." The Editorial fails to substantiate its incredulous claim that there has been a lack of "any action" on the part of the SGA. Their two main critiques - on the lack of updates for the SGA Twitter account and the cuteness of the Senior Spotlight e-mails - are cherry-picked examples that ignore the multitude of other services SGA provides. We hope that the readers of The News-Letter will allow us to correct last week's distortions.
Since the beginning of the school year, the SGA has implemented several measures to improve its transparency. It would seem obvious to most people that through the acts of creating, designing, and maintaining an updated Web site for the first time in three years, the SGA has clearly made an effort to engage more with the student body and increase its transparency. While the Web site is not complete, it is better than nothing - which, for those of us who are seniors is what we've had to deal with since coming to JHU in the first place. As far as missing meeting minutes go, minutes are delayed by at least a week so that they can be approved by a majority senate vote. Delays by three weeks are of simple human error and can be easily fixed.
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