A Word from the SGA

A Word from the SGA

The Johns Hopkins News-Letter · November 11, 2009

Last week's News-Letter Editorial, titled "Waiting on the SGA," offered a passive-aggressive critique of the JHU Student Government Association (SGA) that distorts the truth about the important work the SGA has accomplished this year. As representatives of the student body, we feel an obligation to correct The News-Letter's inaccuracies so that there can be a clearer understanding of exactly what the SGA has been doing.

The News-Letter asserts in their Editorial, "Because of the lack of any action, or any news of possible action on the part of the SGA, this page thought SGA had not been meeting. Our mistake." Yet at the end of the article, they write, "This page is not attempting to be overly critical, nor is it alleging that all members of the SGA are failing their constituents." The Editorial fails to substantiate its incredulous claim that there has been a lack of "any action" on the part of the SGA. Their two main critiques - on the lack of updates for the SGA Twitter account and the cuteness of the Senior Spotlight e-mails - are cherry-picked examples that ignore the multitude of other services SGA provides. We hope that the readers of The News-Letter will allow us to correct last week's distortions.

Since the beginning of the school year, the SGA has implemented several measures to improve its transparency. It would seem obvious to most people that through the acts of creating, designing, and maintaining an updated Web site for the first time in three years, the SGA has clearly made an effort to engage more with the student body and increase its transparency. While the Web site is not complete, it is better than nothing - which, for those of us who are seniors is what we've had to deal with since coming to JHU in the first place. As far as missing meeting minutes go, minutes are delayed by at least a week so that they can be approved by a majority senate vote. Delays by three weeks are of simple human error and can be easily fixed.

In addition to a comprehensive new Web site, the SGA has in fact passed several bills and amendments this semester! (Insert GASP>/b> here.) I don't want to bore anyone, but to name a few: a new committee structure was adopted to increase effectiveness, appointments have been made to each of the SGA subsidiaries, SGA Judiciary was appointed and approved, SHIP (Sustainable Hopkins Infrastructure Program) has been amended into the Constitution and is now an SGA affiliated group, SGA input was given to Dean Tabb (Dean of the University Libraries and Museums) regarding the new Brody Learning Commons (an upcoming addition to the MSE library on campus) and what students would like to see in the new building, a Housing and Dining study has been done and the results are currently being analyzed, a Charles Street Market price comparison study is in the works, Halloween buses were provided to University members free of cost, a barbeque was co-hosted with the IFC, a bill to provide free domain names to JHU student groups was passed, workshops have been set up and provided for student leaders, an administrative shadowing program has been set up and put in to motion, and a second student activities fair is in the works for the spring. While Twitter and other Internet sources are excellent of [sic] information, there is always the possibility that a lack of updates is not representative of a lack of action. When in doubt, why not attend an SGA meeting on any given Tuesday night at 7:30pm in the Mason Hall boardroom?

In response to the complaint regarding a lack of SGA sponsored e-mails, the claim that "more e-mails [have been sent] from the SGA about the young alumni tent than about any meaningful action is has taken" is completely false. An e-mail was sent out on September 18th to describe the organizations goals and encourage student involvement with the SGA. Another school-wide e-mail was distributed on October 8th to update the student body on SGA announcements and event updates. Future e-mails have been sent out [sic] regarding campus programs such as the Green Idea Generator and ALS Awareness Event (Save Second Base & Don't Forget First), the free SGA sponsored Halloween buses, and various other relevant events and programs. If you consider e-mails concerned with promoting benevolent and accomplished groups and events a waste or view them as "spam" to your inbox, then we apologize for any inconvenience we've caused.

Not only has the SGA been working hard this semester, but the individual class councils have also been making the effort to increase the number of events on campus as well as transparency. Do you think the 32nd Street Farmers market just magically appeared on campus two times this year? Are the pub nights at Nolans [sic] sponsored by an imaginary group? Did the new SEN10RS t-shirts ship themselves to campus? By all means, ignore the Spotlight 2010 e-mails - they only update people on events around campus, recognize an accomplished member of the senior class, and try to increase the "effective communication" and "transparency" of an SGA subgroup.

Improvements take place on a step-by-step basis. Why criticize an organization that's trying so hard to make a difference by focusing only on its oversights when there's actually been a legitimate amount of action and progress? The SGA has been responding all year - it's now your responsibility to pay attention.