SGA elects new senate, decides on key issues

     Voting for the Senate of 2007 is now complete, and the Student Government Association is ready to begin its work of serving GCSU, the student body and implementing change.
     Elections took place on Aug. 29 through the 31 outside of the Arts and Sciences Building. New Senators were elected by student votes.
      “We had a good amount of candidates this year,” said SGA President Ryan Greene. “Almost 50 people ran, which is much more than usual.”
     Greene said that voter turnout was also higher than average, which he attributed to having more people on the voting ticket.
      The voting process was also changed from past years, allowing each student to only vote for one candidate per class ranking, as opposed to as many as five from each class in previous years.
       “We did this to get a better representation of the (student body) on SGA,” Greene said. “We made it one vote per category so students would vote on the one person that they thought would be the best for the job.”
     Greene hoped this would encourage the elections to be based on a personal level and not on any group or party affiliation.
     “Before, people would vote on a group or organization,” Greene said. “Now they must vote on one person from that organization, choosing that one person to represent them best.”
     The new Senate will have a seven-hour “retreat” on Saturday, Sept. 8, where it will discuss the issues it wishes to focus on for this semester. While SGA plans to try to be involved in as many student affairs as possible, it plans to place the majority of its focus a few choice issues, which will be determined during this retreat.
     “We plan to focus on five big issues,” Greene said, “though that number might change. We’ll focus on those issues, plan to have this done by this time, and work more closely with those situations.”
     Justin Haight, vice president of SGA, believes some internal restructuring, which occurred over the summer, will better help the students in this regard.
     “In the previous years we’ve had different committees that focused on different issues”" Haight said. “This year we’ve combined them into one Campus Issues Committee.  Then we divide them into ad hoc committees for the different issues.”
     Various topics are already being discussed, with the issue of student parking already on the bill. Students are urged to contact SGA with their own suggestions so that SGA can help improve student’s experience at GCSU.
     “Without the students relaying what they want changed around campus to SGA, SGA would be pointless,” Greene said. “We are begging for student input around campus.”  
According to Greene, it is a goal for SGA to be easily accessible to students.
     “Please let SGA represent the students well; tell us your thoughts and concerns personally, through email, or at our meetings,” Greene said. “SGA is ready to make big things happen this year—we just need to know what the students want to happen.”
      Senate meetings for SGA are held every Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. in the Dogwood Room of the Student Activities Center. Students are invited to attend in order to voice their concerns or ideas to the Senate. 
     For other ways to contact SGA, visit the website at www2.gcsu.edu/sga/ or by e-mail at student.government@gcsu.edu.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 6 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