Hey everyone!
So I know we’ve talked a lot about college and university administrators and how much they do/don’t do for their respective institution. But have we thought about how big a say student governments have? I know that both Macaulay and Brooklyn have student governments, and we even have classmates in them (Chris Cali is on the Macaulay Scholars Council and I am in the BC student government assembly).
I’m just wondering if anyone knows how much power we have or would like to know what we can do? Personally, I am not 100% sure what the Macaulay Scholars Council does (though I am 100% sure that they do a lot). But I know that BC student government controls budgets, holds events, and much more.
So what I’m asking is, do you think student governments can help solve a lot of the problems we seem to be having with our schools? Obviously there are many things we can’t deal with as a student body (applications, building appearance, financial aid, etc.), but we can fix the wifi, build facilities for Access-a-Ride, and much more! So does anyone want to discuss what we, as students, can do?
I think this is something worth discussing! From my experience as an MSC representative, I think Student Government does have a lot of power – more than we know. I think the big reason why students think student governments don’t do much is because they don’t know how to or feel open to voicing their concerns. Students love complaining about how things should be different and better, but that’s all that it usually is – complaining.
The Scholar’s Council meetings are open to all students to come, listen, and speak at, but you NEVER see anyone who is not an elected member there. Students can also let their representatives know if there are any issues, but people haven’t really reached out to me personally and although I try my best to relay complaints and issues to the administration, it is hard. Something I am gonna try and do for next year is use social media more: use FB, google polls, etc. to gauge what’s going on and how we can make the quality of the college better.
I think that the representatives have a responsibility to get the ideas and opinions of students, but it is also the responsibility of a student to take action as well.
To conclude, I’ll just say that problems are solved when students show that a lot of them care about it. So, informing your representative may be a start, but maybe going to the meetings with fellow students, writing a letter, or being the thousandth signature on a petition is better! Who doesn’t want some improved wi-fi? Right?
Back when I was in Student Government at my high school, our titles and actions were mostly symbolic. The power of the executives in Student Government seemed to only extend insofar as the government itself. Few students on the campus have much of an idea of what the government does, or the students themselves that make up the government. While they do make up the budget (though a large portion of the funds are already allocated for them for things like athletics), design and execute student events, and make small adjustments to student life, beyond that they do not hold that much sway in the life of the average student. I always used to believe that it was important for officials of Student Government to go above and beyond what is expected of them and actually do things out of their way for the students. Our government should be active in helping students solve problems across campus that students themselves can solve. Sure, things like financial aid are out of our hands, but things like tutoring a student when the Learning Center is full are not. In American government, this is called constituent casework which is helping individual constituents with their problems. I think the government should do more in that capacity. Beyond what is expected of you, I want to know what the government officers have done to help the average student and make the campus a better place because of their existence as an officer in the government.