Senior Clint Titsworth said he
created the blog, VCU SGA Watch,
because he wanted to encourage
students to care about their
student government.
“In the freshman class, there’s
a sense of apathy … their (high
school) student council was
really ineffective and kind of
superfluous, silly,” Titsworth
said. “They don’t realize that the
student government can actually
help the students out.”
Titsworth is a computerengineering
major who ran for
SGA president last spring and
served as the SGA’s director of
technology for two years. His VCU
SGA Watch blog originally served
as an SGA campaign-watch
blog, which aimed to expose
inappropriate campaigning by
student government candidates.
Titsworth’s blog means to provide
students with information and
commentary about SGA that does
not come from the SGA’s official
Web site.
A bill was passed in a legislative
session last school year that
required all senators to register for
the SGA forum on the SGA Web
site, Titsworth said, and every
senate committee is supposed to
post in the forum after meetings.
Unlike the executives, the senate
has neglected its responsibility
to update the forum regularly,
he said. The forum is intended
to be an easy tool senators can
use to inform students and SGA
members who do not attend
meetings of breaking news, he
said.
The last post is dated May 1, 2007.
“The executives use the forum
immensely, but that’s because
they’re getting paid,” he said.
“I think people going through
the appropriations process of
getting money for their student
organizations — I think they see
that, all of the infighting and the
bickering.”
In a seven-day period ending
on Tuesday, the VCU SGA
Watch blog had a recorded
354 views, Titsworth said.
“Today senate met,” he states
in his last post on Tuesday.
“A call was made for the clerk
to take roll, but the clerk wasn’t there.
Neither was the Vice Chair. Neither
was the Chair. No one had a copy of
the agenda. A motion was made to adjourn.
A majority (of those who showed
up) said aye, and senate ended.
Nothing else took place.”
Titsworth said he hopes his
blog will help students and SGA
members who want a reliable
secondary source of information
about the SGA. Though he no
longer is an SGA member and
does not attend every meeting,
he stays in the loop by using his
connections with senators and
committee leaders, he said.
“I’ve tried to get more student
involvement and more SGA
activity on the Internet,” he said.
Titsworth’s blog:
blog.themachinery.net/
SGA’s Web site:
vcu.edu/sga/