Inside the Crest

The Student Government Association (SGA) Senate convened for the first time this past Sunday at a brief meeting in their Crest Room chamber. With no set agenda the President provided introductions; his cabinet gave fleeting details of their intended plans, and were thus unanimously ratified; senators found themselves volunteered to the Appeals and Impeachment Committees; and the new Dean of the College Shirley Collado expressed her enthusiasm for working with SGA over the coming months.

For those of you unfamiliar with SGA, it officially acts as the mouthpiece for the student body. Through the use of legislation, the Senate may focus some administration attention on a particular issue. At a student level, SGA Committees shape parts of our daily campus lives. A source of authority less often noted, however, is SGA’s rather unique pocketbook.

Although financial usage varies from year to year, we have seen an increase in the importance of SGA funding. Over the course of the Smith, Fakhoury and Panzer presidential administrations (2008-2010), SGA increasingly found itself assuming the role of operational and fiscal manager for aspects of the College traditionally under administrative authority. In the coming years of slow economic growth, SGA is bound to find itself adopting a greater number of orphaned programs. Given President O'Rourke’s platform and the projects mentioned by his Cabinet, it seems likely that we can expect to see the continued rise of SGA financial intervention.

This week’s SGA meeting — designed primarily to allow senators and cabinet members to introduce themselves to one another — highlighted the predictable coming of an annual September slowdown. When asked about their intended goals, a majority of the senate intended to touch base with constituencies before further comment. Out of the 13 senators present – three further seats will be filled by student vote in the coming weeks — ten have no prior experience. Though some proffered general ideas for legislative action — faster internet and adding debit functions to identification cards — they were ones revisited each year by new Senators. They will find over the coming weeks that such obvious projects are either already underway or impractical.

One new senator verbally mulled over the possibility of providing academic credits proportional to the amount of work required by the course, an interesting idea meriting some further review and discussion.

Thankfully, senators Anne Runkel ’11 and Tony Huynh ’13 return to the SGA this year. A legislative powerhouse, Runkel fundamentally understands college governance and, while this author may not always see eye-to-eye to her on policy, the student populace should look to her as the driving engine central to the heart of coming Senatorial debate and active Committees. Huynh comes with less experience, but benefits from having more time remaining here with which to see legislative action through.

For the remainder of the Senate, expect it to be at least three weeks before they learn how to write proper legislation and establish the administration connections necessary for tangible progress.