Legends punch cards and free access to the Wall Street Journal is not all the Student Government Association has to offer. It also offers its participants a look into the wider world of politics and can provide them with a multitude of skills necessary to effective legislation and governing.
The University of Alabama’s SGA was founded in 1914 and is an organization centered around amplifying the voice of the student body in terms of university decision making. However, with resignations, previous series of uncontested executive position elections and our school’s less than savory SGA involvement of Theta Nu Epsilon, or the Machine, it is easy to pay attention only to the negative. Many students care little about student government. But it would be naive to ignore the success many previous SGA members attribute to their time in the organization.
Alabama Supreme Court Associate Justice Chris McCool is one such member. As an undergraduate, McCool first served as an anti-Machine member of the Senate beginning January 1986 and later as Chief Justice of the Student Judiciary. While he attended the University of Alabama School of Law, he was an associate justice and later the Chief Justice of the Honor Court.
“University of Alabama politics at the SGA level was a very strong mirror of statewide real politics,” McCool said. He went on to name multiple Alabama politicians such as John Merill, former Alabama secretary of state, and Jim Zeigler, former Alabama public service commissioner and state auditor, both of whom are former SGA presidents.
“You’ve had all of these people who came up through this and for better or worse, learned the trade here. And I’m not sure it was always the best teacher,” McCool said. “But in a way, it was, because it was just such a milieu of just people and emotions, and there was a lot of strategizing that went on. And so you kind of learned the good and the bad.”
For many participants in SGA, their reasoning is that they would like to continue to pursue careers in government past graduation. SGA is almost a trial to the cut-throat nature of American politics. You have to deal with legislation, complaints, allocation of funds, and most importantly — people.
McCool said that in his experience with public service, “the key to it is interpersonal relationships.” Being able to collaborate with people you don’t necessarily agree with, yet still share a positive common end goal is a skill that will only help you in your professional life.
McCool said he believes the people you meet and the networking you do through SGA are perhaps one of the most effective parts of the entire endeavor. As college students, the number one tip of career advice you get is that you need to network and that everything is a game of who you know. With such successful alumni, many of whom are still involved in SGA, the association offers excellent networking opportunities. For all students involved in SGA know, they may already be working alongside future politicians and legislators they may meet again in the future.
SGA does have a history that should not be ignored, but neither should the successes it has created. It gives you the tools and skills you need for the future, you simply need to know how to wield them in a positive manner.
“Don’t be afraid to get involved,” McCool said. “If somebody like me can get involved and do what I did, then anybody can, if you just got the drive and the desire for it.”
