It was a cold Saturday morning in Fayetteville, Ala., last January when SGA President Stephen Swinson, Treasurer Christian Smith, and I, serving as Speaker of the Senate, represented Alabama at the SEC Exchange, a conference of all 14 collegiate SGAs in the conference. Here I stood on stage with my counterparts defending the strength of our SGA after reports of resignations surrounding the First Year Council scandal had circled around the SEC.
The SEC Exchange is a time for collaboration and idea sharing, one of the most significant moments of the year. It was the source of inspiration for many SGA initiated programs, such as 348-Ride, Before Bama, electronic football tickets and Ride with the Tide. This past weekend, our university’s delegation was the only one missing from the conference. My phone was abuzz with inquiries as to why we were not present. As a member of our student body and SGA, I was embarrassed.
Our SGA has had a history of going through phases of activity and inactivity. As part of the SGA through the Years project, I spoke to countless SGA Presidents who describe very different SGAs. However, not counting the years of the SGA’s closure by the administration, I cannot find another year or rival the level of incompetency and general disregard for common sense that currently exists.
At the Building Champions through Service project in Miami, Fla., an SGA program, more than 300 individuals from the Alabama and Notre Dame communities were present to rejuvenate a section of Downtown Miami, Fla. No one from our SGA’s executive branch stayed for the duration of the project.
In December, members of the executive board forced Executive Vice President Matt Harris out of office, utilizing reports that have not lived up to real person accounts for the circumstances around his departure.
To top it off, anonymous sources close to SGA officials confirmed to the CW that the SGA lost tens of thousands of student’s tuition dollars during the heavily mismanaged RAGE concert this past fall.
Beyond the executive branch, the SGA Senate has barely met quorum since our election. The Legislative Council, the governing body of the Senate, has not met since March. This as the SGA Judicial Branch just ruled that all elections within the election of Senate and judicial leadership are not bound by the provision in the constitution that states “all SGA elections must be conducted by secret.” Their interpretation of directly contradicts opinions submitted by a majority of the Constitutional Revision Committee, the body that wrote the constitution. This decision opens the door for third parties like The Machine to have further influence over elections.
Organizational affiliations say a lot about you. One can determine many of your values and interests by simply looking at the student organizations you’ve joined. I now ask myself, what does my involvement in the SGA say about me? The experiment in democracy known as the Student Government Association is more equivalent to Putin’s Russia. Now more than ever, this organization is composed of individuals looking to advance their political careers and satisfy their egos.
Someone far wiser than me told a group of students that being an elected official is unlike any other form of employment in the world. It’s the only job where your boss hires you and leaves you alone unmonitored and without direction. We are the boss, and we should demand more of our leaders. They represent us, and their actions are a reflection of our values and beliefs. If we continue to let our leaders act in complete disregard of our moral code and work ethic, we will become them.
Ryan Flamerich is an SGA Senator from the College of Engineering. He served as speaker of the Senate during the Cochran and Swinson administrations.
Leading in today’s Crimson White:
[Opinion] The South needs to have open conversations about race to escape its history
[Opinion] National news needs to stick with the facts in order to truly benefit viewers
