New SGA Prioritizes Student Interaction

Author: Revathi Avarasala

This year the Middlebury College Student Government Association (SGA) plans to focus on introspection and a thorough reevaluation of its programs. The SGA has historically focused attention on a wide variety of issues ranging from food to financial aid, social life to campus safety. This year's 'check-up' is intended to increase student-SGA communication, raise efficiency levels and hopefully cut out a lot of red-tape.
The three main areas of agenda this year are the Commons System, the study abroad program and the SGA itself. The SGA also plans to address issues such as revamping social house and academic interest house guidelines in conjunction with the Community Council, the lack of campus-wide parking, a new alcohol policy with the proposition of an on-campus bar,campus-wide construction, curriculum diversity and monitoring the student response to the new Enhanced Access System that will be installed later this school year.
SGA President Ginny Hunt '03, has served extensively on the SGA as a senator and cabinet member, and has also worked on the Community Council. Ben LaBolt '03, is serving as the 2002-2003 student Co-chair of the Community Council, a body composed of faculty, staff and students that composes non-academic policy. His role on the Community Council includes having a seat on the Executive Cabinet and being a voting member of the Senate.
LaBolt sees the effort to iron out the wrinkles in the relationship between the SGA and the general student body as imperative, reasoning that "the more the student body is linked to the process, the more our goals can reflect their needs." He hopes to improve communication between the student body and the SGA to ensure students' opinions are accurately enacted in future decisions.
For instance, the SGA plans to update their Web site to make it more interactive, enabling students to keep up with the current events being discussed in the Senate and to voice their own opinions.
It also plans to create a Leadership Forum in an attempt to tighten both the relationship between student opinion and the decision making bodies, and the dialogue between the various on-campus student organizations. This forum will be a collection of leaders spanning many of the varied on-campus organizations, and it will presumably meet to discuss initiatives that affect all student organizations on campus, such as Finance Committee guidelines and programming. Hunt proposes this new initiative and direction reasoning that "the SGA will focus this year on coordinating efforts among various groups at Middlebury in hopes that greater communication will produce greater results."
"Every student is a member of the Student Government Association at Middlebury," Hunt said. "This year, the Senate and the Cabinet will work to advance those issues that impact every facet of student life."