LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

SGA and the search for community learning
to make others’ conditions our own:

Unselfish collaboration is the cornerstone
of almost all successful human endeavors. It
is difficult to do anything significant alone.
At this important time in our lives, we live
in the world of ideas. We experience great
intellectual and emotional development and
we learn patterns of behavior that will serve
us for decades. We form relationships that
will remain with us throughout our lives.
Our social growth is critical during this
formative process. So it is important that we
consciously and thoughtfully choose how
we wish to advance in our life’s work.

Some students believe that success is
limited, that life is a zero-sum game. They
believe someone else’s success is their loss.
Survival of the fittest is their rule. Dog
eat dog. Life is one long commute home
during rush hour. They are determined
to get there first-with the most. What
they have – grades, credentials, degrees,
important friends – are more important
than who they are.

As students in the university community,
we are in a wonderful position to develop
an alternative social orientation-one that
can serve us beneficially long into the future. As community members, we can come to
understand that we are all feeding at the
same trough; we are all customers at the
same store; we are all in this together. Our
student government serves as a clearinghouse
for collective activity. Of all student
organizations, it (the SGA), alone, governs
the intersection of the student with the
university administration, the intersection
of the campus with the city. The objective
is to work together for the common good,
“to develop some significant commitment
to make others’ conditions our own.” If we
successfully learn how to do that, here and
now, we will be the immediate beneficiaries
of our positive collective actions. But, more
importantly, we will be able to take those
skills with us into our lifelong communities,
teaching by example, leading by principle
and experiencing the satisfactions that
can only come from generosity, humility,
maturity and deep inner fulfillment. Actions
Count at VCU!

Students for Positive Change

Jibran Muhammad

Adam Sowder

Solle Taghavi

—

Dear Fellow Rams,

The Student Government Association
is the student body’s official governing
organization and its spring election will
be held from March 25-27, (with voting)
online at vcusga.com. I encourage you to
mark these dates on your calendar as a
reminder to vote. Half of the Senate and
the Executive Branch are up for grabs.

As I announced in the Jan. 14 issue of The
Commonwealth Times, I am a candidate
for student body president. Since that
announcement, I have been pleased and
– in many ways – pleasantly surprised by
the positive response I have received from
the literally hundreds of fellow students
with whom I have spoken.

The proper role of the SGA should be
to educate the student body on issues that
affect it and to advocate student interests
to the university’s administration in a clear
and cogent manner. The most pressing issue
facing us students is the increasing cost of
college. Increased tuition has not resulted
in a comparable increase in services, and
the SGA has not served as the students’
voice to the administration in this matter.
It is time for our SGA and the university
to get serious and rein in spending.

VCU has not been doing its part to
minimize costs. But first the SGA needs
to look inward at its own fiscal dealings
before it can truly be a voice of positive
change for the students.

As student body president, I will set
a good example to the university by
reducing the SGA’s expenses and actively
will encourage the university to do the
same. Currently, all student organizations
requesting a portion of the Student Activity
Fee must submit their budgets to the SGA
Senate Appropriations Committee, where
the (various) organizations will receive a
portion of what they request. The SGA,
however, literally submits its budget to
itself and – because SGA more or less
controls the distribution – SGA gets what
it wants, which is entirely too much. The
largest line item is consistently salaries for
Executive Branch Cabinet members. During
the 2006-’07 fiscal year, SGA’s executive
branch had a budget of $40,770, of which
$28,800 was allocated for salaries for its
members. This is wrong.

As student body president, I will cut costs
by hiring fewer cabinet staff members. For
example, it reasons well that the president
should be able to communicate a message
to the administration effectively. So why
would it be justified for me to spend
students’ money without their consent to
hire a director of communications?

Such moves by the SGA serve not only to
lower the standing of the SGA in the eyes
of the student body but also that of the
administration, making the body ineffective
in being able to communicate properly the
needs of the very people they are elected to
represent. I will seek to enact real change.
I hope you will join me in this effort. You
can learn more at realchangevcu.com.
Thanks for reading.

Yours truly,

Steven C. Latimer

Student Body Senator

Monroe Park Campus