WCU SGA wants to see bigger student involvement. Photo by Ben Haines.
As the spring semester comes to an end WCU Student Government Association officers prepare to take on their roles for the fall, the students of WCU are ready to give them a little advice.
The Student Government Association (SGA) hasn’t always had the best reputation with the students of WCU. Students and organizations have voiced their discontent which seems to fall on deaf ears. Some of the issues that have been voiced involve, contacting SGA officers, receiving money for their organization, and understanding what SGA is beyond the free food.
The Student Government Association is composed of 30 people with minorities making up about 15 percent of that number. Student Keisha Jones expressed her discomfort with the unequal representation in SGA, “SGA is a bunch of white friends that get together and make decisions,” the quote itself seems harsh but a reality nonetheless.
A member of SGA, who wanted to stay anonymous, talked about unequal treatment and corruption that they have witnessed while in SGA.
“I remember a time when a girl that was in SGA that was a finance major used SGA money to fund her capstone project and that was probably one of the first times that I noticed that people are in SGA not necessarily because they want to bring change but because it provides them with an advantage over the student body, it gives them extra access to power and resources that a lot of them can’t handle. I feel like if money wasn’t such an incentive to join SGA then it would weed out people that aren’t joining for the right reasons,” said a student former member of SGA executive board.
Junior Jenifer Montoya also had a few suggestions for SGA.
“First thing that SGA should work on is their presence on campus. A lot of people don’t know who SGA is because we never see them unless their are handing out free stuff. Free stuff is great but we need more from them. The student government association is the middleman between students and administration and how could they do their job properly if they don’t know what we want. We need open forums so that we can first, meet the SGA staff and second voice our concerns to them face to face, I feel like those would be the first steps to solving the problem,” said Montoya.
Many students are looking to have their voices heard and their issues fixed by SGA but can’t seem to reach them. As spring semester ends, the incoming SGA staff is going to need to make big changes in order to change the perception students have on student government.
No one in SGA has stepped up to address or offer solutions to fix the problems student have regarding them, until now.
The incoming vice president Adam Lytle, was able to clear up many of the concerns students are dealing with SGA. Lytle addressed the issues of new restaurants selections, waitress salaries at Chili’s and assuring quality employment of students in the future.
SGA is here to help fight for the students and the issues that are important to them but ultimately they cannot fight ever students battle but they can however make a bigger effort.
See what students and the new Vice President had to say about SGA.
