More bureaucracy means less solutions
But our SGA doesn’t need an additional branch and certainly doesn’t need a Joint SGA at this time.
Shane Wade
Opinion Editor
Student government associations exist to serve the student body, relay student concerns to the university administration, prioritize student involvement and allocate funds to student organizations.
It’s a simple mission. It’s a clear purpose. It’s a complicated job.
In addition to juggling academics and work, involvement in SGA can be fairly challenging, particularly when it comes to sorting out dense documentation and procedural specifics (just like in real government). Sometimes disseminating that work to another individual or operational branch is an efficient use of time and resources and a good way to build interorganizational tie.
But our SGA doesn’t need an additional branch and certainly doesn’t need a Joint SGA at this time.
The chaos of organized bureaucracy runs too much of our lives. Instead of adding another branch to the thorny shrub of litigation and red tape, our SGA should work within the framework already established. By adding another branch, we risk adding and extending existing problems within our SGA, including, most prominently, communication failings.
Anyone, from a hardcore Shakespeare aficionado to a tech-savvy businessperson, will point out miscommunication as the most destructive force to efficiency.
In the official discussion of whether to form a Joint SGA or not, supporters of the measure highlighted the case of intercampus organizations having issues receiving funding for activities.
While addressing the concerns of student organizations is the responsibility of the SGA, it’s obvious that an intercampus organization’s struggle for funding is a performance issue that should be dealt with by passing measures to simplify funding procedures or revising current procedures to make funding for intercampus organizations simpler.
To quote Henry David Thoreau, “the government that governs least, governs best.” Bureaucratic layering complicates matters, as officers within student organizations are given “the runaround” and departmental powers become restricted in an effort to prevent power infringement. The unity of the university as a whole does not depend on re-organizing the priorities and responsibilities of our current governing bodies.
A review period, lasting one year, would neuter the proposed Joint SGA, making it, as the chairwoman of Academic Affairs Committee and a strong advocate for a joint formation, Niyati Patel, said, “almost like an advising committee.”
Although having a review period would allow the wider SGA to judge the value of the Joint SGA, that derived value would not be a true reflection on whether the Joint SGA could or would have been an effective instrument in carrying out duties because it would have been limited in power.
An experimental agency will inevitably be overly reliant on its parenting bodies. Judging performance based on an inevitable failure is not a strong policy for building relations, both in interpersonal and in interorganizational relationships.
