For little under a year now, I have been a senator in the Student Government Association. I won’t be running again because I’m tired of all the B.S. and lies. I think it’s time to disband SGA and rebuild it for a number of reasons. First of all, there are too many members who are affiliated with Greek organizations on SGA and they do not represent the student body as a whole. In fact, most of the members on SGA are in a Greek organization and the majority of the student body thinks that they are not properly represented and do not care about them. Though I have nothing against Greek organizations, each Greek organization should allow only one member in SGA each year. More of the student body who are not in a Greek organization should be on SGA; I know there are many students who care a lot about this school.
Second, there should be term limits on all students senators serving in SGA, the number of years a student senator should be allowed on SGA is one. If that student wishes to be on SGA longer, then they should run for a cabinet position. Then the maximum years allowed should be three for all positions on SGA. There are too many members on SGA who have been on it more than four years and that is unacceptable.
Third and lastly, SGA should make the lives of students easier, meaning that all of the students living off-campus and students living on-campus should have zero problems on the campus. That means there should be more printers and parking, computers that actually work, and an elevator that doesn’t get stuck all the time. The smoking policy and especially the Free Expression policy both should be found unconstitutional and scrapped altogether. Tuition is rising every year and SGA should vote against every proposal to raise tuition by the administration! Students are pissed off every time SGA votes with administration on tuition. Over the past year I have heard many students call SGA, “a joke”, “lapdogs for the administration” and that they are sick and tired of losing their rights to a bunch of people who do not care about them. Others have called SGA a secret cult and have student sacrifices for the people in suits. I have seen cartoon satires about SGA in The Northerner, which I laugh out loud at the sight of, though others within SGA have no sense of humor and complain about the cartoons. Boo-hoo, its called free speech!
It’s time for SGA to change. It’s time they start representing the entire student body, not just a few people in order to gain brownie points. In this coming election, don’t vote for the same people over and over again, vote for a fresh face with new ideas or don’t vote at all. Fight the Power!
Brian O’Neill SGA senator
