Taxation Without Representation,.. or something like that
When interviewing freshman to get their take on what it means for the university and the class itself to have zero freshmen representation in the Student Government Association for my story that ran in this week’s print issue, I was amazed to find out very few students actually knew the group existed, let alone what SGA’s main function is.
In the interview process, I asked students if they knew what SGA was. None of the 11 freshmen interviewed were familiar enough with SGA to recognize the acronym, except for Christena Georgas, who was offered a senate seat but declined due to a conflict of interest. Well more than three quarters of the freshmen were not aware USD had student government that actually dealt with significant issues.
Georgas said students fresh out of high school perceive collegiate student government to be as uninteresting as student government was at the institutions they just left.
But I’m not sure Georgas is entirely correct. She is right in that the majority of students I spoke with expressed absolutely no interest in the topic at all, but it goes beyond mere interest. They didn’t seem to think that student government was vital to the makeup of the university. Many appeared bewildered that a lack of freshmen representation in SGA was even news worthy. It just wasn’t important. If my analysis of the interviewees is even close, then let me just say this: If this is as civic-minded as these students are going to get, then we are in big trouble.
SGA needs freshmen representation in part to bring fresh ideas to the table but also there are certain issues that relate mainly to freshmen. SGA President Blake Alberts has told me more than a few times the dorm decoration ban would not have remained intact as long as it did if any of the senators or SGA administration had been aware of it. And because hardly any freshmen knew what SGA was, not one of the disgruntled students, and there were many, thought of bringing concerns to their senators.
Alberts has said he hopes to avoid occurrences such as this one and is hopeful SGA will have freshmen senators in the spring. Many freshmen aren’t sure how much they can handle when they first get to college, Alberts said.
If Mr. Alberts hopes to come through on his claimed ambitions, he is going to have to recruit like the SGA has never seen before and I hope he does.
Good luck!!!
