by Lola Garcia
At the end of first semester last year, over 400 students took the opportunity to tell SGA how they really feel.
In a survey of forty two questions, the students fielded questions ranging from what they thought were the most important issues the school faced to their views on self governance. Former president Alejandro Oyarzabal ’04 wrote and organized the survey.
The results came in and were less than extraordinary. While a range of issues were presented, there were no clear “hot topics” that the student body was concerned about. The most common issue listed, the rise in the cost of tuition, garnered only 14 percent of responses. The campus budget, alcohol policy and protecting computer labs were also common responses, but none managed to command more than 11 percent of the responses.
When asked what they thought of the job SGA was doing, 58 percent of students answered “fine.”
“[The survey] was the only time we’ve ever had any decent… opportunity to get a sense of how the student body feels about SGA,” said SGA President and former Administrative Coordinator, Liz Allan ’04.
After the results were tallied, they remained untouched for nearly a year. Oyarzabal finished his term, and now Allan wants to revive interest in the survey and use the results.
“I really need the help of the student body,” said Allan, “[SGA] can’t just be making insular decisions.”
One of the first things she wants to do is get students educated. “There are things in [the responses] where people clearly just don’t know,” said Allan.
She says a lot of what is holding SGA back from being an effective representative body is student apathy and ignorance. In an interview she explained that “a complacent student body just stops us.”
Allan realizes the task she is taking on. “This is a really risky thing,” she said, “I’m trying to get the student body to return to SGA.” The current president thought that students had a right to be apathetic, and even angry, toward SGA, given its own somewhat sketchy past and former leadership.
Four to five years ago, SGA was a distinctly political body. “There were voting blocs,” Allan said, “it just seems ridiculous now.” But an out-of-control bureaucracy and sometimes shady budget handling left a distinct image of SGA on students.
“Either you thought SGA was a complete joke, or you were apathetic or you hated [SGA] because you’d been screwed over,” President Allan said, “nobody felt like SGA represented them.”
Allan recognizes the residual negative impressions left by past administrations, but is committed to changing the students’ impression of their government, and she sees the survey results as a good, though long neglected, place to start.
“I need the support and energy of the student body,” said Allan, “but we can’t get anywhere until people stop hating SGA.”
SGA is powerless to effect real and important changes.
SGA alone probably is too powerless to effect real changes. I do believe,
however, that the student body as a whole has real influence. Through open dialogues and, when necessary, direct action, students can make changes. The problem we have is with the apparent lack of student interest in campus issues. If students fail to voice opinions to SGA, there’s no way we can formulate an organized response to campus administrators. SGA has the resources, the information and the necessary connections to effect change. We need student support more than anything else.
Students are apathetic and uninvolved in SGA in part because of lack of visibility and publicity.
This was a common survey response, and I’m more than happy to deal with this concern. You should hear from your SGA senator on a weekly basis, via the distribution of the Joint Board minutes. Because that’s not enough in terms of publicity, we’re going to try some new things this year. Before fall break, look for loggia posters, tabling in the mailroom and a letter summarizing issues for the student body. If you have more thoughts about publicity, please contact me. As always, Joint Board meetings are open to the public. Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m., North Lounge.
Self-governance is a joke/ dead/ a lost cause/ weak/ should be abolished/ an
excuse from the college to allow students to drink in the middle of rural Iowa.
While self-governance allows students the freedom to act independently and autonomously, it also necessitates that we make responsible, community-oriented decisions. I think that self-governance will die if we don’t make it a part of our everyday decisions. If we believe in the philosophy of self-governance and want it to remain intact, we need to have some serious discussions about what it means to this college. I will convene some sort of a student initiative on this topic directly after fall break. Be on the lookout for e-mail from your senator about that.
No one takes SGA seriously.
I get the sense that this was true in the past and may still be. I want to emphasize that SGA is your best resource for student group, student life and campus concerns. While SGA handles a large budget, I think that budgets should be a small part of what we do. This is a representative body, here to act in the interests of students. Please give us a year. Tell us what we can do for you and how you’re willing to help. I understand that this requires a leap of faith for some, but if you believe in the fundamental mission of Grinnell College, you have to trust someone on this campus to help it along.
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