The position of SGA executive secretary, much like other secretarial positions in offices around the world, has become less and less essential in the modern age. That record keeping within SGA is still such a largely human enterprise is a result of a failure of our student leaders, for budgetary reasons or otherwise, to modernize their systems. We believe that the best candidate for executive secretary would present a plan to make his or her job obsolete by the next constitutional rewrite; Stephanie Gaytan has met this test.
While ACT Cards are sufficient to enter academic buildings, attend athletic events and purchase food, the SGA currently does not utilize them for keeping track of office hours, a central role of the executive secretary. Stephanie presented a plan to leave the sign-in book behind and return to some sort of digital system, which would undoubtedly make keeping track of office hours easier and more efficient.
The most important part of the executive secretary’s job – keeping and publicizing records of what the SGA does – is one of great concern for our organization and our campus. For years now, legislation passed by the SGA Senate and documents related to executive actions have been publicized only sporadically, and often incompletely. Stephanie demonstrated a commitment to greatly improving the SGA’s digital record keeping, as well as ensuring that information would be available to the public, not only online but also through SGA’s newsletter, which currently only SGA members receive.
Stephanie’s platform was far from the most dazzling we received this campaign, yet few of us were able to think of any alternative points that could have improved it. The nature of the role of executive secretary does not call for major innovations. Her charisma and experience led many on this board to wonder, as we did after Jordan Forrest’s VPFA interview last year, why it was that she did not seek a different position. Nevertheless, we find her platform points both feasible and, if she achieves them, beneficial to SGA and the campus as a whole.
Our View represents the consensus of The Crimson White Editorial Board.
