SGA Holes

Abraham Lincoln once said, “a house
divided against itself cannot stand.” If
this is so, the Monroe Park Campus
Student Government Association is in
shambles.

I realize I am generalizing about all
SGA members, and for that, I am sorry.
The majority of the SGA probably wants
to help provide the student body a
better atmosphere while at VCU-but
most of the SGA members I’ve dealt
with have acted like catty, immature
children drunk on visions of their own
self-importance.

At least, with real politics, there
are important issues being discussed
beyond all the infighting and bickering.
The United States Congress makes real
decisions that affect many lives and that
shape the course of our nation. The
SGA should be more than a glorified
high-school-prom committee.

The CT has been sent numerous
letters to the editor personally attacking
other SGA members regarding the
elections, judicial rulings and other
nonsense. These people do not have
the courtesy to distinguish between
professional disagreements and personal
attacks.

Before the second elections took place,
I couldn’t decipher what was going on.
But then again, even Jessica Lee, the
current SGA president, seemed not to
have a grip on what was happening. In
the April 21 issue of The CT, Lee was
quoted about the lack of communication
in the SGA.

“It’s ridiculous,” Lee said. “It’s like trying
to get information out of a wall.”
There had been such a lack of information
that, Lee reportedly said, some SGA
candidates didn’t even know if there
would be another election. Trying to
find information on the SGA Web site is
as challenging as running past the bums
between Little Caesar’s and Hell Block
with a fresh pizza.

The VCU SGA needs to get its act
together. It needs an accurate Web site
so that students can stay better informed
about what is going on.

The SGA should direct more money to
advertising both its existence and ways to
contact its members. The SGA members
should be much more vocal about ways
students can reach them and can submit
problems to be discussed.

Currently, a voting grievance only can
be submitted within the 24 hours after
an election concludes. To give students
a fair opportunity to submit grievances,
the bylaws should be changed to allow
a grievance to be submitted within at
least the first three days after voting
has ended.

Votes need to be counted in a timely
fashion so they still have significance.
The SGA Joint Elections Committee,
which oversees elections, needs to be
strengthened tenfold if it’s going to deter
voting discrepancies.

Bylaws also should be put into place
that discourage infighting among higherranking
members of the SGA. Presidents,
vice presidents and justices should not
be ripping apart other members of the
SGA publicly, especially when they
have decided a case involving other
members. Official judicial opinions are
where ideas should be expressed-not
in personal-attack letters.

VCU SGA members have a long way
to go if they want to rebound from the
past few weeks.

Encouraging the honorable President
Eugene P. Trani to sign the American
College and University Presidents Climate
Commitment is a step in the right
direction, but – as a whole – the SGA just
needs to get organized and fix the holes
in their organization. SGA members need
to provide information and transparency
about their workings and need to
promote themselves better.

A house divided cannot stand, but
with a solid foundation, the SGA might
get back on its feet again.