By Andrew Hoenig | Assistant Editor
Gardner, Mass. – The Student Government Association (SGA) at the Mount is an elected group of students who represent the students’ interests to the college’s administration.
But in a recent survey done on campus regarding the general knowledge and impact of the SGA, a theme seemed to appear.
Many of the students answered these three words on at least one of three questions, “I don’t know”. In fact, 90% of the students who participated in the survey had little to no knowledge on what the SGA does for students and the school, what clubs it has organized on campus, and what impact it has on the students themselves directly.
The remaining 10% had a background of being, in some way shape, or form involved with the SGA.
What this survey did was show how much knowledge most students have about the SGA at MWCC.
These results come as no surprise to Carrie DeCosta, current president of the SGA at the Mount, since the start of the fall 2015 semester. In fact before taking office, she says she too had little knowledge of the SGA and its impact in students’ lives.
“Honestly, as the SGA president, I am not shocked that most students don’t know what the SGA actually does for the student population. Before becoming involved myself, I was a little unsure of what SGA did, however, I knew a little bit,” said DeCosta.
Cathy Teague who was the former president of the SGA from the Fall 2014 semester until the end of May 2015, also seems to echo DeCosta in her understanding of how much students actually know about the SGA and gave a reason as to why this may be.
“The students come to school, go to classes, and leave. There’s not that sense of community,” said Teague.
The overall impact of the SGA in student life on campus can be felt when any major issues or concerns come up.
“As SGA members and specifically me as president, I represent the voices of the student body,” said DeCosta. “Any major issues or concerns can be brought to me and I can filter them up through the appropriate connections to see what we can do to get things resolved.”
“We handle relations between the staff faculty and students, sort of like liaisons,” said Teague.
DeCosta echoed her saying, “SGA is the voice for the student body population. A lot of students do not feel comfortable approaching a professor or the dean of students with an issue that they may have that has risen on campus. This where SGA comes into play. We are the liaisons between the students and faculty bringing any and all concerns to the meetings….”
“The SGA is bridging the communications gap,” said Teague. Aside from being the intermediary between students and faculty, both Teague and DeCosta pointed out other purposes the SGA has.
“The SGA helps to plan campus activities. I realize that most of the students do not realize how big of an impact the SGA does have on the student body, however a lot of the planning and execution of campus activities, orientation and presence on campus is just a portion of what we do as SGA members,” said DeCosta.
Another big thing that Teague mentioned the SGA does is the food drive for Thanksgiving, “It helps students at Thanksgiving. We do it annually. It helps provide food to those with housing, food, and security needs.”
Currently the SGA is also involved with many clubs/organizations on campus.
“I believe we have a total of 29 clubs and organizations on campus, and as a requirement for the clubs and organizations to receive allocated funds from SGA and the school, they are required to raise 30% of the allocated funds issued to them for the fiscal school year, as well as complete 2 community service projects,” said DeCosta.
So with the results of the survey showing the students don’t really know what the SGA is doing, how can the SGA get the word out more and get the students more involved and knowledgeable?
Teague says that, “Telling students of their personal experiences, spending time with them at the SGA booth, and talking with them at orientation,” are just a few ways to get the students to understand and know just what it is the SGA does for them at their school.
DeCosta, being the current SGA president, also gave her take on what she thinks can be done now to help better inform the students while she is in office, “As the student government president, it saddens me to know that most students have no idea what we do or that most students have no idea what we do or what clubs and organizations are available on campus to become involved. It is a proven statistic that students that are involved on campus generally have a higher GPA and a higher success rate throughout their college experience. One way that I feel this can be resolved is by having a greater presence of SGA members at the SGA Booth in the center highway heading towards the cafeteria every day of the week, including nights.”
DeCosta made this final promise to better inform students of the SGA and its purpose; she wants students to know what it is the SGA is doing and why, and claims, “This is definitely my focus for next semester and hopefully our presence will be well known and students will have a better understanding of what we do to help the student body and population.”
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