In the past few weeks, much time has been dedicated to criticizing the Student Government Association and the University administration. In a free society, disagreement is welcomed and people are allowed to share their disagreement. But criticism just for the sake of criticism is neither constructive nor productive.
In response to criticism of administrators, I would like to say that this administration, while not perfect, has been highly successful in growing the University and increasing the quality of students as well.
I always feel welcomed when I meet with administrators here and feel that they are truly student-oriented. I have friends who attend other universities and they have told me they have little or no interaction between their respective administrators.
UA is fortunate that our administration welcomes and encourages students to come and talk to them and share ideas. We won’t always agree, but through civil discussion we can find common ground. The bottom line is this administration is more active and student-oriented than past administrations here and more so than administrations at other universities in the surrounding area.
When it comes to the SGA, all of us can recognize imperfections in the system. As it has been pointed out in this paper recently, there are flaws in some of the selection processes. I understand the need to print this, but there is such a thing as over-kill.
The best thing to do in regards to these shortcomings is to admit there is a problem, make a solemn commitment to reform it, follow through, and move on. We should not dwell on the shortcomings. When students only read the negatives about the SGA and the administration, they will be less likely to call upon the SGA or the administration for help.
Some may say that criticizing the U.S. government does not stop people from asking for help from their congressman or senator, but that is because the services available and provided by the government are well-known. The services that the SGA provides are not as well known. There are 31,747 students on this campus and I know that many of them have problems, concerns, questions, etc. But, for whatever reason, they do not seek out the SGA or the administration.
The SGA is, despite whatever you have read or heard, the students’ resource on this campus. The SGA is an organization of students serving students. Students are encouraged to come by the SGA office (231 Ferguson Center) and talk with the SGA members. Students are encouraged to share ideas, ask questions, and raise concerns. If you have ideas, share them. If you think something can be done better, come and talk about it. Constructive and civil discourse can accomplish many things. The SGA works for you, but only if you take advantage of it.
The SGA provides many valuable services to students, but most of these services are unknown to the majority of campus and are easily overlooked when the only publicity the SGA receives is in a negative light.
Last year, the SGA raised over $50,000 for student scholarships. The SGA provides an emergency loan program in which students can apply and receive up to $500, interest-free. The SGA provides test booklets for free. The Ideas to Action program allows students to submit their ideas and then be part of the process by making those ideas come to fruition. Some previous projects that came from Ideas to Action include the highly successful and popular Date Auction (money raised from this goes into the endowment fund for scholarships) and reform of the test bank (a collection of study materials for courses offered at UA). The High Tide Club, which offers incentives for students to sit in the upper-deck during football games, also raises money for scholarships. These resources do not help you if you do not use them.
When we dwell only on the negatives and imperfections, we are distracted from our main goal and purpose and discourage students from taking advantage of the resources available to them.
It seems to me that our priorities are not in order. We focus too much on the differences and how we can oppose something or someone. To me, many of the stands that have been made recently were made for the sake of exposing flaws and imperfections and to criticize without the intent of being constructive in the process.
I also believe that this negative attention led to President Cochran resigning. It is a shame it had to come to this. It just shows that we became focused on bringing people down, rather than building the student body up. We should not focus on making a stand. We should focus on making a difference.
Jeff Elrod is a junior majoring in political science and a SGA Senator.
