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Inside The SGA |
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| By SCOTT EVAN GOLDBERG SGA Legislator So what is the Student Government Association doing for you? If you’ve watched any news channel in the past few weeks you’ve probably seen Vice President Vetter or Student Body President Daly launching the SCAN PAC, an initiative to raise funds, hopefully $50,000, for municipal and state lawmakers who are willing to help the cause of higher education and student welfare. But what you haven’t seen isn’t covered on the nightly news or even any print media. The only way you can find out what is going on is by physically being at an SGA meeting or asking your SGA legislators for updates. On October 15th, the SGA passed an initiative that assigns an SGA legislator to be the personal contact for 6 student groups. That covers every recognized group which is eligible for student activities fees money. The SGA, a group that decides to not pay itself, is now giving its own members even more work to do? We must be crazy. On Sunday, October 19th, a mini-carnival was held in the Graham Cracker to give students a chance to meet the Mayor of College Park, a few councilmen, President Dan Mote and a few other College Park icons. At a cost of 6 pennies per undergraduate student, everyone got their money’s worth. |
Now let me tell you about some of the things you probably won’t see for a few months or even until next year. There are concurrent efforts in the SGA and University Senate to try to make booklists available early enough so that students can bypass the bookstore and save hundreds of dollars throughout their college career. Also, if you’ve ever heard of or been to the “Taste of DC” you won’t have to go too far in the spring because you’re going to get the opportunity for a “Taste of College Park.” Are you angry that the 5 rows totaling 103 seats behind the visitors’ bench in Comcast are given to student groups by the athletic department? That sounds a little discriminatory to me. Don’t fret. We’re looking into changing that. We’ve even got a warm side too, a Thanksgiving Break coat drive is planned for later this month. How about those stacks upon stacks of newsprint schedules of classes? Each stack costs the University of Maryland, and in essence it costs us all, $10 to design and produce. Most of them won’t be used because of this new invention called the Internet. The administrations’ Efficiency Task Force will be made aware of this by two Legislators in the very near future. Sometimes all it takes is a phone call or an email and anyone can put in motion an instrument of not change, but improvement. It’s just that easy. |
I’m not going to go on a rant about students being apathetic and not doing
enough. That’s not your job. When you read all these articles saying
that you should get involved and to care, dismissing them is a perfectly
normal reaction. However, you should get involved when the people whose
job it is to represent you plan an event worthwhile of your time, and
don’t just make blanket statements trying to motivate you with no
direction. So sit tight and keep an ear and an eye open. The first step
to your own personal involvement can be coming to an SGA meeting and
seeing how the process works. The SGA meets every Wednesday at 6PM in the
Margaret Brent Room at the Stamp Student Union. Take an hour out of your
day to get an insiders view at a bunch of students who try to make this
school and this community we all share, a better place.
You can learn more about the SGA by visiting their website at http://www.sga.umd.edu |
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