OPINION: Student Government Is Independent Of Faculty And Staff
On Oct. 9, UT-Tyler’s official student newspaper Patriot Talon published an interview with Student Government President Chloe Dix in which the president described both herself and her association’s role as being that of a “liaison” between students and the faculty and staff.
“Chloe Dix says her job as president of the Student Government Association is to serve as the primary liaison between students, faculty, and administrators,” Talon reported. Talon also reported that Dix said student government is "a really good way for students to stay connected with faculty, staff and administration.” She said, “If they (students) don’t specifically know who to go to when they’re having an issue, they come to us, and we can point them in the right direction.”
In a way, to this reader it can seem like Dix may see student government as a subordinate to university administration or as an extension of the professional class’s work towards the student body.
While I am unsure whether these statements best reflect President Dix’s position, speaking from my years of observation of student government, it is not uncommon for student government officials to feel intimidated by the professional administrative class nor to feel so impressed by administrators' credentials that they feel as though SGA’s role is subordinate to the administration’s work.
However, this would be a mistake.
While student government certainly collaborates with faculty and staff on projects of shared interest, ultimately student government’s mission is to champion student interests to the University's Board of Regents, even when faculty and staff disapprove of student government's actions. Only student government has the responsibility to champion the student body's concerns. Therefore, student government must know that it has the permission to separate from of the university’s professional class so that it can advocate for its student constituency effectively.
Unlike its counterparts (that is, both the faculty and staff senates and senior level university administration), only student government can represent student concerns without fundamental conflicts of interest. For while the faculty senate's concern is for its members' research and classroom curriculum, the administration’s concerns are to execute policymakers’ vision for state higher education and to comply with existing law.
Only student government exists for no other responsibility than to advocate for student interests. In other words, it has no other competing priority. Unlike the faculty and administration--which have other concerns which could cancel out student concerns--student government has no other responsibility than to represent collective student opinion to the governing board.
Therefore, student government has both the right and the responsibility to speak up for student interests regardless of faculty and administrative sensibilities. Student government is and must be independent to advocate for its students effectively.
Therefore, student government ought to embrace this mission and recognize that it necessarily separates both themselves and their assembly from other entities in university governance. That is, the unique responsibility student government carries grants it an independence from other constituencies within the university. So, student government ought to be willing to partner with other entities but not subordinate itself to them.
I know that addressing “Doctor [so-and-so]” and “Doctor [this-and-that]” all of the time among University staff can make even the smartest student representative feel out-classed. However, student representatives must remember that their chief work lies in getting past the professional class to speak the truth about student concerns. This must mean independence from shared governance counterparts to avoid dueling interests.
SGA members can be friendly, of course, and appreciate collaborative partnerships. However, they must recognize that their social and perhaps even emotional independence is necessary for them to successfully advocate for students' best interests clash with those of faculty and staff.
So overall, student government representatives should not let their standing among the credentialed class of university officials intimidate them out of standing up for what is important to their constituency. Student government representatives must stand apart from faculty and staff’s work. They must see themselves as independent so that they can advocate for students’ priorities effectively.
Who knows what Patriot Talon may have left out from its interview with President Dix that may have provided a fuller expression of her position? After all, Patriot Talon is not yet a professional newspaper and is still practicing news reporting.
However, even if these statements reflect her true position, it is important that student officials embrace their unique identity as the student constituency and recognize that courteous independence to the university’s professional class is essential to effective student advocacy.
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