As football season rushes around the corner, student organizations at The University of Alabama can apply for Student Organization Seating at the Crimson Tide’s home games through the SGA.
This year, the selection process has something very different about it: the Board of Governors.
Vice President of Student Affairs Branden Greenberg said the Board of Governors will have the final say in which organizations are ultimately chosen for block seating, and they will continue to work throughout the season as something similar to a judiciary committee for any problems that arise from the student seating.
“The Dixieland Delight incident flagged this University last year, and we don’t want anything like that to happen again,” Greenberg said. “We want students who are really respectful, but also readily available to cheer on Alabama.”
Also new this year is a mandatory meeting this Sunday at 6 p.m.
“If an organization is interested in applying, they have to have representation there,” Faust said..
Other than attending the meeting, interested parties must also apply by Aug. 31st using the SGA website and give a presentation on their organization.
The application itself requires four essays and other general information about the organization like overall GPA and SLPro hours. The organizations can use the presentation as an opportunity to give their application a personality.
“The student organizations are representative of the University,” said Director of Media Relations for the SGA Catherine Faust. “They’re the biggest publicity tools the University has.”
Greenberg agreed, saying that spoken words can sometimes be better than written words
The presentation also allows the presenters to discuss philanthropic endeavors their organization participates in that can’t be logged into SLPRo
“Anything that’s accredited by a community service entity and is legit, we’re going to count,” Greenberg said.
So far there aren’t a lot of applications turned in, but Greenberg is still very hopeful.
“We’re dealing with college kids,” he said. “The deadline is at midnight, so I look forward to seeing 100 new applicants at 11.”
The biggest change in the application process this year is still the Board of Governors, but it’s a change that Greenberg is expecting to stay.
“[The Board of Governors] is a program that’s very viable, and it’s a program that will continue. It can expand, it can decrease, it can be flexible, but it is something that is permanent,” he said.
The SGA plans to announce the block seating results by Sept. 4th or Sept. 7th at the latest.
