SGA Afterthoughts

Student Government Association, or SGA, is how students at Campbell, and other university campuses, get to have a say in what happens at the University, including such matters Winter and Spring Formal (very important to many students), along and other important student events and minor policy.

In my time at Campbell, though, SGA has been pretty ineffective. Students don't really care about it because, no matter who gets elected president or what decisions are made, it never seems to change anyone's life very much.

Part of the problem is the apathy of the students. There's very little communication. As students, we want change sort of, but we're unwilling to make any shift in our lives that would place us at any SGA meetings. The only time students get informed at all is during elections, and normally from candidates in suits that corner us at dinner with stickers and business cards, which is resentful.

What I would like is a website accessible from Campbell's homepage with streaming video posts, or a Youtube channel, of all the speeches and lobbies that happen at SGA meetings, with labels, tags, and the ability to leave comments. I think it would have a number of effects:

1. Students could get informed about issues and the process in a no-pressure situation.
2. The information would be coming straight from the mouth of the issue supporters in SGA, not though the Campbell Times newspaper, which is often unreliable.
   
3. There would always be an available history of the evolution of issues in video archives.
   
4. Students could leave easy feedback in the form of comments to specific issues.
   
5. Campus politicians and lobbyists would be held accountable to the students for what they say during the meetings.

Technology makes this cheap and relatively easy, and I think it would make the meetings more transparent, which they ought to be. With such ease of involvement and the ability to really respond to issues as if you were there, I think SGA could be more effective, and more in the public mind of the students they serve.