ter it has all occurred, I would like to go on record over my opinions of this year in your Student Government Association.
There are those who I would like to praise……
To our 2002-2003 leaders: President Banks, Vice-President Jones, Secretary Plotkin, Treasurer Pitre, and Speaker Bostick, you have all done well in leading SGA. To Constance and Jason, who are going to be back here at SHSU next semester, I am looking forward to continuing to work with both of you in SGA.
To the candidates of the 2003 SGA Officer elections-well done on your campaigns. I congratulate Ms. Cartwright on her victory as President and I look forward to working with you in SGA this fall.
To Jason Plotkin: You ran a good campaign and got out there. Just don’t give up, and remember…the second try at a campaign is always better….just ask Richard Nixon (if he were still alive). You knew what you wanted and I hope you keep pursuing it, and I’ll help you pursue it.
To the other officers, I look forward to working with you all this fall. To my fellow senators, those who will be joining SGA for the first time and those returning, I look forward to working with you all.
To Emily Billings, chair of the Rules and Regulations Committee of SGA-Good job. When Mike Kaatz departed SGA, you took charge of Rules and Regulations, and I am very proud to have co-sponsored two bills with you pertaining to the Homecoming Election Codes and the SGA Unfunded Organizations Program and to have sponsored a forthcoming bill that hopefully will be passed at our last general meeting, that will fix a problem with current election codes. I look forward to working with you again this fall.
To Dean Frank Parker, Dr. Thelma Douglass, and Dr. James F. Gaertner…thank you all for your continued support of SGA. Without any of your support, we would get absolutely nothing done.
Now on to my stances and why I took them and what I plan on doing about it this fall…
Last week, we passed a bill that simply said that we support a new $30 per semester Health Center fee. While I acknowledge the fact that the changes at the Health Center are needed, especially the Physician, I felt that the students deserved a bigger voice in the matter.
Every student I listened to said that they were against the fee. I am against any fee for services that students do not use. Students already pay a hefty fee for college. I can accept a tuition and housing fee increase, but I cannot accept fees for services that me or other students might not use such as the SAM Center and now the Health Center.
After all, SGA is the voice of the students. A voice requires a brain. The students are the brain. If you felt that your voice was not heard properly, then all I can say is get involved next fall.
I plan to keep listening to the students this fall as they have the right to a good voice. If you have a complaint, and no other SGA Senator will listen, come to me…I will listen and I will do my damndest to get the job done.
To the Election Commission for 2003-2004, I say boo to you all. This election was one of the most sloppily done elections ever.
This Election made the Florida election problems of 2000 look professional! Complaints were made regarding ballot design, the polling hours, and the fact that students were denied a chance to write-in candidates until day two of voting.
Add to that, the ballot design violated the SGA Election Codes themselves by enabling students to vote for senator candidates outside of their respective colleges. Even worse, some students wound up submitting blank ballots because of misworded directions on the ballot. What did the election commission do about it? Absolutely nothing. They blamed it all on computer services. That’s the biggest bull I’ve ever heard.
The Election Commission should have supervised Computer Services in designing the ballot and should have done their job.
If you’re going to do an election, do it legal, instead of breaking the rules that govern you. If you are not going to do your job or do it horribly, then you should get out and make room for someone who will do it correctly!
My biggest goal for this coming fall is to overhaul the Student Election Codes, to make them clearer and to improve them to where problems like this are avoided. If the problems are not corrected now, they will happen again, possibly ten times worse.
But above all else, it has been a year of ups and downs, and I want SGA to improve and I will do my best to see that it is improved.