SGA campaigns provide unintentional entertainment to campus community

It's that time of year again. Spring break is over and many students are thinking about summer and relaxing after another grueling semester.

But my thoughts are focused on the Student Government Association elections. After the two parties began to campaign on Facebook, I noticed something strange.

After both parties-Rock Revolution and The After Party- posted their platforms, some of their ideas were being attacked by current SGA members.

What's interesting is that most of their points were valid, fair critiques of ignorance in campaigning.

Some of the initiatives proposed were already being worked on by the current senate.

Rock Revolution wrote that they wanted to see a wheel chair ramp between the Spotts World Culture building and the Physical Therapy.

Sam Goodge, current SGA vice president of student affairs, has been working on adding a wheel chair ramp between Spotts and the Physical Therapy building for six months.

The After Party also had problems grasping the issues.

A "rate my professor" type of system?

Isn't that what students do at the end of each class when they fill out the survey?

Also, the Facebook page mentions the group wants reassurance of the blue light boxes on campus work.

Well, the emergency systems are tested regularly and SRu Police are said to have a response time under 10 seconds.

How much more of a reassurance do you need?

Now in my mind this raises two important questions.

First, do we want to be represented by two parties that haven't been paying much attention to SGA?

And shouldn't a campaign be more than playing loud music and Facebook groups?

If the first question is in anyway correct, my concern for next year will be great.

While it's true that you can't know every little detail of what the current SGA has accomplished or is working on, but up have to at least do some homework.

Call them and ask what's going on.

There's nothing wrong with asking questions.

I was excited to see the ideas both groups had, but was turned off by the fact they didn't know they were already in progress.

Changes can only be made if you have an understanding of what your role is and if these things can be accomplished.

Once elected, the new SGA won't be able to institute all the changes they want.

It's not practical.

People are going to disagree and gridlock will occur.

Nor will they have a complete understanding of how to do their job properly.

No student organization understands what they have to do, or the responsibility that comes with the job until they finish a whole year.

Both campaigns are throwing ideas against the wall and hoping they stick.

It's easy to throw a bunch of ideas out for students to get excited about, but it's another thing to see them come to fruition.

And let's be honest, does anybody think the new SGA is going to be able to lower book prices for students?

Books have been expensive for years, the real solution for students looking to save on books is to buy them online or rent them.

In regards to campaigning, I see a lack of connection with potential voters.

Both groups blasted music in the quad all week.

While I don't mind loud music, when two people blast music at the same time, I find it hard to focus on any particular group.

Professors have also been complaining that the music has been so loud they haven't been able to teach their classes.

The other problem with campaigning is an institutional one.

Students have to wait until the 12:01 a.m. the Monday after spring break to start campaigning.

So the two parties had from March 15-22 to campaign. Just try and imagine having seven days to get information to roughly 8,000 other people.

Seven days?

That's not enough time to build campaign momentum.

It also eliminates the little man from getting involved.

To win the election the way it's currently structured, you need to have some kind of name recognition or notoriety on campus.

The short election campaign time also assures low voter turnout (although it would probably be low regardless), which allows certain students an advantage.

Students involved in Greek Life have a leg up on the competition.

To make the campaign even more maddening they can't use social media until the 12:01 a.m. the day campaigning is allowed to start.

I think people should be able to campaign when they want.

Some may say it's not fair, but I think enthusiastic students who are driven to succeed should be rewarded.

With the current system, after months of quiet and no word of elections, all hell breaks loose.

I had about six Facebook invites on my page on Monday. There was one for each party and people forming their own fan pages.

Even though I'm not a huge fan of the current system, I'm glad current SGA members are defending their work and pointing out ignorance for not acknowledging what they have done.

It shows they're active and interested in SRU politics.

Let's hope the next group will perform in the same manner.