Students Feel SGA Does Not Represent Them Well
Photo by Patrick D. Lewis
By Patrick D. Lewis
A recent poll conducted by The Tower found that Catholic University’s students overwhelmingly feel that the University’s Student Government Association (SGA) does not represent them.
The finding comes after an especially tumultuous SGA Senate meeting that saw a chaotic, contested election for the position of President Pro Tempore—the senior senator position–which led to accusations of election rigging by the SGA Executive team.
The incident is just the latest in a long string of meltdowns, intrigue, and apparent ineffectiveness in the body that serves as the official representative of Catholic University’s undergraduates. Last year, meetings became so contentious that the then-President Jeff Lance threatened to call Campus Police if students watching the meeting did not adhere to the guidelines for attendees.
In a poll conducted by The Tower on Fizz, an app whose CUA page is open only to Catholic University students, 96 respondents said they did not see SGA as a good representation of the student body, while 29 said they did, a 77%-23% ratio.
In an interview, Student Body Vice President Catherine Weatherwax, when told about the results of the poll, said, “I’m not entirely surprised to hear it, but I’m definitely disappointed to hear it…something that we’re trying to emphasize is that we’re an entirely different Executive.” When asked how the Executive would work to change the Senate, she replied, “It’s just through clear communication, building good connections with senators who have proved to be problematic in the past…building those good connections makes a world of difference.”
The Tower also solicited student comments on the effectiveness of the SGA Senate.
“They don’t represent the student body because the executive and a couple of senators are turning SGA into a corrupt joke by ignoring procedures to push their own agenda with no benefit to the student body,” said David Solis, a sophomore politics major.
General sentiment among many students is that they often don’t look at the resolutions because they don’t mean anything. Others said resolutions from several years ago were more relevant to student life.
Students said they believe the change in behavior from the senators and how they present themselves is what led to the current situation.
Sophomore philosophy major Sophie Justin says that she feels like there is an issue with representation in SGA. “The reason I wanted to get involved with SGA is because I recognized that there needed to be changes and problems on this campus, but I knew I had to make the changes myself because it is hard to get your concerns heard.”
“Part of being a representative body means, like, working together to be efficient,” said Weatherwax. “That means giving each other a lot of grace and respect, especially in our decorum, because that’s a super crucial part of what it means to be respectful.”
Eyes will be on Executive XI and their plans for the future of SGA, as well as their vision to bring student government back into the hands of the student body.
Research for this article was performed by Griffin Cappiello
