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The Rice Thresher
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by OLIVIA ALLISON THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF Wiess College students introduced discussion about improving the relationship between the student body and the administration at the Student Association Senate meeting Monday. A two-hour meeting in the Wiess basement April 6 that included most college presidents, SA President Lindsay Botsford and other students prompted the discussion at the SA meeting. Wiess junior Cyrus Caroom suggested at the Wiess Cabinet meeting April 5 that Wiess students should protest Monday's Martel College groundbreaking by not attending. Wiess President Josh Katz said the majority of the cabinet members did not support the idea. "Few people agreed with [the protest] as a means of making our voice heard," Katz said. "Wiess Cabinet decided the Martel ground-breaking would be a bad time to do anything." There were no protests visible at the groundbreaking Monday. Katz explained that the Martel groundbreaking itself was not the cause of any complaints, but rather a time and place in which students felt that they would have the attention of administrators. The biggest cause of student complaint is that no new Wiess House will be built near the site of the new Wiess building due to a lack of funding. Instead, the current Hanszen House will be used by Wiess masters, and Hanszen College masters will use the current Wiess House when the building opens in December 2001, along with Martel. "Students were feeling as though their ideas and preferences weren't weighed in some important decisions," Katz said. Katz said cabinet members decided to hold a meeting the night after the cabinet meeting because the discussion about communication with the administration was both lengthy and unproductive. Katz informed the other college presidents of the meeting by e-mail, and the president of all but Jones and Sid Richardson Colleges attended. Senior Sandheep Surendran attended the meeting as a delegate from Jones. Caroom said students at the meeting reached the conclusion that the college cabinets and SA should work more closely together because the administration views the SA as the most representative student voice on campus. "We decided that the root problem is that there are nine separate elected government bodies, none of which completely represent the students, and the SA is the one the administration looks to," Caroom said. Hanszen sophomore Gavin Parks, former SA treasurer, said Wiess students have previously not been involved with the SA. "Wiess has always had a problem, from what I've heard from other people and what I've observed, and they view themselves as 'Team Wiess' and are not willing to be involved in an organization that represents the entire campus," Parks said. Botsford, a Wiess sophomore, said if Wiess students were more active participants at SA meetings, they might feel better represented by the SA. But, she said, beginning discussion on the topic of communication was "the most important step." "The people at Wiess realized they were personally responsible in some way for this," Botsford said. "I'm glad the discussion started at Wiess, but this is something every college needs to do." At the SA meeting, Caroom said he was frustrated that the SA did not address issues from individual colleges more often. "The SA should act as a service organization of colleges," Caroom said. "It is comprised of college representatives but it should act as a group working together with the colleges, not as a separate entity, which I think is the problem now." Wiess sophomore Josh Ginsberg said he felt few students were pleased with job the SA is doing. "The greatest part of the student population doesn't believe in this body," Ginsberg said. "A lot of students do believe the SA is ineffective for one reason or another," Parks said. Baker College President Melissa Boddie said college cabinets should start by working to improve students' views of the SA. "We probably need to change the colleges' perceptions about the SA," Boddie said. Senate members at Monday's meeting agreed to discuss student-administration and student-SA communication at each college's upcoming cabinet meeting, and the senators will report on their college discussions at the April 24 senate meeting. Caroom said he had hoped the discussion at the SA meeting would produce more immediate action. "I was pleased that the discussion happened, but I am a little frustrated that it seemed that people in the SA were not necessarily proactive," Caroom said. "There was a definite recognition of a problem but it didn't seem like there was a lot of initiative on the part of the SA, but that may happen in the future." Parks said he felt that much of the discussion at Monday's meeting was unnecessary because the issues were never clearly defined. "We had a 45-minute discussion on Wiess realizing that the SA is open to all students in all colleges," Parks said. "I'm glad Wiess realized the SA can be helpful in being an advocate for student grievances, but I think a lot of the discussion was excessive. "I think a few Wiessmen came to the meeting saying they had these issues but those issues were never really explained, and so it seemed like they were whining," Parks said. Botsford said she hopes by the end of the semester that some changes will be made as to how the colleges work with the SA. "What we hope to do by the end of the year is inform each college of what they can do to change things themselves," Botsford said. - back - |
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