Acorn

Issue date: 11/14/08 Section: Opinions

Media Credit: Kelsi Bitgood

Student Government Association President Dana Etkowicz ('09) promised Drew University many things when she stepped into office last year-including being open and having frequent communication with the Drew community. Currently, most students are receiving regular e-mails from their dorm, university and class senators and, every once in a while, Etkowicz will send one out as well. The Acorn applauds the initiative behind the senatorial and presidential e-mails, as well as the reinstatement of The Squirrel, the SGA newsletter. However, these e-mails and postings miss the opportunity to comprehensively inform the community on the progress of the SGA as a whole.

An Acorn poll revealed that students know little of what specific issues the SGA is working on, and The Acorn believes that though the SGA is working hard behind the scenes-and contributing to the community, such as in yesterday's light bulb exchange program-their public relations committee should double its efforts to make known specifically what the SGA's top projects are for the semester.

There is definitely progress in the level of communication with the students. One item on the Etkowicz/Gonzalez platform last spring was to get all the student leaders together in one meeting, which happened in October. Talking with community leaders and welcoming students to senator office hours is a good start. But to get the students to come to office hours, we need to be informed about on the ongoing progress of developments. In the beginning of the semester, the SGA Senate debated banning cigarettes in the book store. However, there was no follow-up informing Drewids about the progress of any of these issues, like the cigarettes ban. Even in Etkowicz's latest e-mail, she ended it with: "This is only a little bit of what we are working on; there is much more!" Well, why don't you tell us more? We're curious to know what it is!

Sometimes the exact details of an issue can't be broadcast to the Drew public because of the closed meetings that go on with administrators to handle these issues. But advertising open meetings every week would be helpful, and would probably engage the students more than a flyer in the bathroom stalls telling us to contact our dorm senator for more information. Continue to make use of e-mails and The Squirrel, but The Acorn wants to see students directed to an updated Web site that gives students information they need. And we want to know what the big issues are so we can be motivated to get involved.

The SGA is handling many priorities right now. The first priority we need as a student body is a frequently updated and comprehensive link of communication. The Web site is not fully updated, e-mails give abbreviated information and the minutes of the SGA meetings are never distributed campus-wide. Once these issues are dealt with, maybe the students will care how the SGA is working rather than wondering if they are.

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