Few votes determine SGA election

Five thousand college students can make a lot of noise, granted, they make the choice to speak out. Of the 5,000 students who attend GCSU, a little over 500 chose to vote in last week’s Student Government Association officer election. That’s 200 more than last year’s election.
“GCSU students don’t realize their rights,” Rachel Hodge said.
Hodge, the current SGA Vice President, would love to see GCSU students take a greater interest in their student government.
“We want people to know who we are,” Hodge said.
Hodge and other current SGA officers were pleased to see an increase in student participation from last year. SGA is responsible for student concerns, allocating funds towards student organizations, and advocating new student policy to President Dorothy Leland and the rest of GCSU’s administrative staff.
Among their goals, the recently elected officers believe getting GCSU students to vocalize their needs is a key priority for the 2008 school year.
Newly elected SGA president Ryan Greene, a sophomore business major, wants to see students take a role in their government.
“It’s important for students to realize that to benefit them best, they need to give us their views and concerns so that we can address the issues as efficiently as possible,” Greene said.
The SGA Senate, composed of 25 GCSU students, acts as a “voice” for the GCSU student body. They convene every Wednesday to discuss and vote upon various resolutions that affect different niches of the student population. The sessions are presided over by the vice president, who is supported by the other officers. As typical session involves student organizations requesting financial support and deciding upon several that can affect all GCSU students.
“Last year, we passed a resolution that extended the operational hours of Sodexho,” Hodge said.
This decision was based upon various pleas students directed towards the SGA. After a victorious outcome, one would think that most students would applaud their student government.
Across the campus, many GCSU students did not vote in the election because they feel unaware of the SGA’s presence.
Mitch Bell, a senior history major, did not participate in the election.
“I don’t really notice anything they do, so I didn’t give voting much of a thought,” Bell said.
The SGA office is located on the side entrance of the Student Activities Center. Any GCSU student is welcome to drop by and share their concerns or opinions about campus life at GCSU, and can also send e-mails to student.government@gcsu.edu.
“We, as a student organization, can help individual students make a change to GCSU as a whole,” said Greene.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 9 2007. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry