SGA needs to get students involved in issues, voting

Eric Hydrick / Columnist

The last couple of issues of The Pendulum have mentioned that the voter turnout at the Student Government Association elections was incredibly low. Which is sad, considering all the stuff SGA does, like ... well actually, I have no idea what it is that SGA does.

That’s the real problem with student involvement with SGA. It’s not that we’re apathetic, it’s that we don’t know what SGA is. We know some students get elected into it every year, and while we vote on which ones do get elected, we also vote on some kind of amendments that don’t affect us.

I’ll be honest. I didn’t vote. I only knew who two or three of the candidates were. I have been here for almost two years and I’m still not sure what SGA does during the school year except that the president speaks at some events here and there.

I didn’t vote, not because I don’t care about Elon or don’t care about who represents me on SGA, I didn’t vote because I didn’t know anything about what was going on in SGA. And I’m not going to vote out of ignorance.

What issues does SGA deal with? What is its purpose? What has it done for students since fall of 2002? What benefits has it brought to the student body that The Pendulum says it represents?

I may be grossly ignorant on what goes on within SGA, but I’ve just never heard anything about them aside from election time.

It could be that I miss its articles in The Pendulum and don’t catch it on E-net. Or it could be that no one is telling us what is going on and/or that SGA isn’t making a serious effort to keep the students in the loop.

The presidential election, on the other hand, I will vote in. That’s because I know what the federal government is doing on major issues. When it passes laws, I’m aware of it because most of those laws affect me, not just Congress. I have a general idea the candidates’ views and beliefs.

I have no idea what the people on SGA stand for. I’ve never seen any kind of platform from any of the members. What are they doing now? What are their current concerns and how are they addressing them?

The federal government’s actions are widely publicized to keep people informed as to what is happening, as well as who’s taking what stance in order show the population what positions are being taken by our leaders. Who’s telling the students what SGA is doing? Who’s fighting for or against what?

I’m sorry to be raising annoying questions and uncertainties all throughout this column, but I just have no idea what these people are doing. I never hear about their function at Elon, and whatever those amendments are that they pass haven’t changed anything for me.

How do they even know what it is the student body wants? I haven’t seen a poll from them.

Are they telepathic? Are they so wise that they already know what it is that the students want from them? Are the students’ desires even relevant?

Perhaps the best course of action isn’t to complain about lack of student involvement. Perhaps the student government and student media should be more assertive in telling Elon what’s going on.

For instance, any kind of issue that SGA is dealing with that affects the students should be aired on ESTV and published in The Pendulum so students know what’s going on and can contact their representatives and let their opinions be known.

If SGA votes on something, the results of that vote should be known to the student body.

If SGA wants to amend its constitution – or whatever it is that it’s amending – then how about amendments that affect the students? If Elon wants students that are more involved, then first it needs to make sure that the students are more informed.

The easiest way to do this would be to send surveys to every campus box asking students what it is they want the student government to address. If the surveys don’t generate enough responses, then set up a table in Moseley and get students to fill it surveys there or orally voice their concerns.

The best way to get student involvement is to be involved with the students. What about some kind of drop-box for students to leave their concerns in for SGA to look at and address? Or an e-mail account so students can just type up their issues and send them to the government at Elon? Does SGA even have these sorts of things?

It’s very easy to not pay any attention to SGA and to be apathetic about it when it seems like SGA is unconcerned with the students and is apathetic enough to not bother keeping the student body informed about what’s going on.

SGA should start working to find out what the students’ concerns are and to address them publicly so that Elon students can see what their student government is doing. Once we know what’s going on, odds are next February, we’ll see a lot more people voting in the SGA elections and have a lot more candidates to choose from.