OPINION: SGA Has A Responsibility To Represent Student Interests

(Source: DS Bigham via Flickr)

This week, I exhorted The Student Government Association (SGA) at UT-Tyler to embrace its responsibility to lead in the form of opinion leadership on matters of university policy. I spoke during its Open Forum portion of its meeting. 

"Opinion leadership is the most important form of leadership that this assembly can have," I told the audience. "In other words when it comes to things like parking, or when it comes to things like the cafeteria menu...these areas exist for you as student government to step in and have a formal opinion on behalf of the student body to make recommendations to the university leadership...That is why you guys exist, and that is your opportunity to serve and to be effective as advocate for the student constituency," I said.

Afterwards, I followed-up my five minute speech with an email to the group the following day. In it, I reminded them that by individual senators championing student causes to the assembly and by the assembly adopting these causes and in turn championing them to university leadership, student government could make the best and most responsible use of its privileged status with The University of Texas Board of Regents. 

See, student government has a special, recognized status with the university's governing board so that the board can make informed decisions when it comes to the students' experience. The board will listen to student government over any other student group that claims to represent UT-Tyler's student body. 

The board needs this SGA input to avoid contrary policies to the general student interest. For such policies may lead the student body protest or even riot as has happened at other universities around the world when the student body feels its concerns goes unheard.

The board also needs to hear directly from the student constituency, without the filtering of conflicting interests in the administration or faculty constituencies. This way, the board may act decisively and intervene on the student body's behalf. It is willing to do so and the help for students is there if student representatives bring their issues to the governing board.

Therefore, The Board of Regents grants student government a seat at the table in university decision-making, and the board's representative, the university president, is on-hand at the university to act on the students' behalf. 

In this light, it is necessary and responsible that student government use this privileged status not to serve itself nor its members' special interests, but rather to serve the student constituency. Student government serves students by taking up the constituency's concerns and by championing them before UT leadership.

It ought to use its position to advocate for the student cause. For if the assembly plans events such as Midnight Breakfast (as cool as that is) and hears different speakers every week at Speaker's Podium (as nice as this is), but does not take formal positions on university policy, then student government fails to fulfill its purpose. It is unfaithful with its special access to the governing board.

So I spoke and wrote to student government to exhort members to take-up this responsibility and to advocate for student concerns. 

No other campus entity has such access, authority and ability to properly advocate on the students' behalf than student government. In many ways, the UT-Tyler student experience depends on student government! So, I exhorted the association to take up this role and step into its proper place. 

Below is a link to the video of my speech and a copy of the message I sent the following day. 

Student government must take up its responsibility to advocate for student's behalf. Without it, students continue to endure hardships from poor university policy. 

Video here. 

Email to SGA here:

Dear Student Government,

Thank you for allowing me to speak to you yesterday. As you may know, student government has privileged access to The University of Texas Board of Regents. I believe student government's responsibility is to use its privilege to serve others.

I exhorted you yesterday to embrace this responsibility and to use your privileged positon to advocate for students’ concerns. I hope you will.

Along this line, I want to challenge each of you individually to champion an issue of your choosing. Whether the issue is parking, cafeteria food, or any other, I exhort you to master a topic and advocate for the senate to adopt your solutions.

Collectively, I challenge the senate to then adopt these proposals, as it sees fit, and to advocate for them to the university leadership. As I said yesterday, I have found no better tool for this than the parliamentary resolution. (Cornell University has a helpful resource to guide you with writing resolutions.)

Overall, by senators championing issues individually and by the senate championing issues collectively, you all can make the best and most responsible use of your privileged access to The University of Texas Board of Regents. I hope you will do just this.

If I can help you along the way, then know that I have a series of essays on my blog that outline what I believe every senator must know to be successful. You can find them here. 

I also publish my weekly newsletter. You can find it here. My blog is here and I am also on X (Twitter) and Instagram. 

Lastly, my blog contains a lot of student government history from writing over the years. You may find this useful.

That’s it! I hope you will feel empowered to advocate for students. No other entity can do this but yours!

Good luck and I will see you out there in the realm of ideas.

Sincerely,

James Hescock

The Campus Conservative Blog

Sign-up for my newsletter! 

X: @Jhescock12

Feature Image:  DS Bigham via Flickr

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