The Student Government Association hosted a candidate forum on March 31 at 8 p.m. The candidates discussed the lack of student participation in SGA and SGA-related activities. Three executive tickets spoke at the event. The tickets are as follows: BreAuna Shaw (pres), Amanda Gonzalez (VP); Brittany Wyatt (pres), Robert Gonzalez (VP); Sophia Smith (pres), and Mackenzie Moon (VP).
The concerns of the candidates included the involvement of students in official and public capacities. Each candidate agreed that student involvement was not at the level it should be.
Shaw said SGA has not had elections in the last three years. “That means this is the first time in three years that students actually have a choice in who they elect,” Shaw said. She requested that the library dig up records on whether a Black student had ever run for SGA president in the past. She said they came up empty-handed.
Moon said that student participation in SGA is linked to a lack of awareness. “I had to ask Brittany (Wyatt) where the Great Hall was during our first senate meeting,” she said.
Wyatt attributed the lack of student involvement in official capacities within SGA to the pandemic. She says that students are overstretching themselves and feeling burnout. “It is extremely hard for all of us to extend ourselves [then] want to get involved in different capacities,” she said.
Robert Gonzalez said that the student body is not participating in SGA related activities. “The thing that we see is that there is zero engagement. If we look into the audience, right? There are not that many people here and the crowd that we see here has some of the most involved people we see at all within meetings like this,” said Robert Gonzalez.
Moon said students are not attending senate meetings because they are nervous and scared. Smith suggested solving this problem by reaching out to campus organizations and faculty. She said the campus community would respond positively if it saw SGA putting an interest in them. “I want the student body to know what SGA is, what it does and all of these opportunities that it has that they could be part of,” said Smith.
Amanda Gonzalez said students are only attending SGA Senate meetings for grant funding requests. She said that SGA is viewed as dull and boring. “I don’t want that to be what SGA is known for and what Senate is known for,” Amanda Gonzalez said. She suggested SGA host an information session on the purpose of SGA.
The candidate forum lacked communication from senators. This is because the senators who applied ran unopposed. One-fourth of the senatorial positions were unopposed. The remaining three-fourths had no applicants. According to the SGA constitution, the power to appoint senators sits with the president. The appointments will be voted on by the Student Senate.
SGA hosts public senate meetings every two weeks. The last senate meeting of this semester was scheduled for April 21. Chief of Staff Amanda Boozer says this meeting was canceled. A meeting was scheduled for April 7, but it was rescheduled to April 5. Notifications regarding these changes were not sent out to the student body in any capacity.
Student Publications submitted a request for the April 5 meeting minutes but has not received them. The Student Senate has rescheduled several meetings this school year without notifying the student body.
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