The Student Government Association has decided to change the committee that selects which student organizations get reserved seats at Crimson Tide football games.
“Last year, we laid a pretty good foundation for ensuing progress with student organization seating,” SGA President Grant Cochran said. “One very direct way we saw that we could improve our system was by defining a more representative committee.”
Under the new system, student organizations will submit applications that will be reviewed by a committee of 15 individuals, seven appointed by the SGA’s legislative branch and seven appointed by the executive council, with one chairman over the process. Seats will be allocated to student organizations based off a point system.
“The primary goal is to make sure that as many student organizations have a fair chance of getting seating for football games,” Seth Morrow, SGA communications director, said. “The biggest change is the composition of the committee. In the past, there was an application where students could apply for the committee, and the vice president of student affairs selected the committee and appointed a chairman.”
The new committee will be comprised of students from different types of backgrounds. Morrow said having so many different opinions represented will help show that the committee is open to all types of organizations.
“We wanted to have more student interest represented, and we really hope that this makes the process better than it was last year,” Morrow said. “We hope that this continues to move forward and progress like a lot of other things are on campus.”
SGA Speaker of the Senate Ryan Flamerich said he thinks this new committee will show everyone that the process is fair.
“We have had a lot of criticism in the past about student organization seating,” Flamerich said. “Most people felt that it was just handled behind closed doors. This year, we want to open the doors and show everyone exactly what is going on and how the process works.”
Flamerich said he hopes this new process will ultimately help better student organizations.
“This committee will award seats based on the performance of student organizations and not the perception,” Flamerich said. “My goal is for this committee to help student organizations become better. This could be a real tool to push student organizations because they actually have something to compete for.”
Now that the committee process is in place, all that is left is for the two sides to appoint their representatives.
“We have the seven individuals that will be on the committee, and they are all members of the senate,” Flamerich said. “We are currently waiting on the executive branch to appoint their seven members. Once they do that, the committee can move forward.”
