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May 1990 • UGA: An Independent Look • Page 7
Deia vu
Revamped student government faces familiar woes
By Johanna van der Wal
A little more than a decade ago, the
Student Government Association held its
final spring elections. Harold Mulherin, who
was elected SGA president in 1979, moved
quickly to abolish this representative
student organization on the grounds of
disinterest and a lack of cohesiveness.
Despite intense opposition, students
narrowly voted to resurrect the Student
Association in 1987. While the organization
has scored a few victories since, with projects
like the escort van, its reputation again has
suffered from several public failures.
The first SA administration ended its term
on a sour note after not fulfilling its promise
to bring a big act to Sanford Stadium for a
spring concert. The second administration,
led by President Mark Schisler, met
complaints about the government's
ineffectiveness with campaign promises of
required attendance and stimulating
individual senator projects.
But by the end of the term, nine senators
had stepped down from the government,
three of whom specifically cited problems
with the leadership of either Schisler or Vice
President Mary Beth Hartlage. Just before
spring elections, President Pro Tern Andrea
Naterman revealed that several senators
had seriously discussed bringing
impeachment proceedings against Schisler.
During the SA's third year of elections this
spring, there was again talk of abolishment.
Presidential candidate Pat Dolan and vice
presidential candidate Kelly Corley ran on
an abolishment platform, promising that if
they couldn't improve the SA's image this
year, they would promote the end of SA when
students vote on it in a referendum next
spring. The SA constitution requires a
referendum every four years to decide
whether to continue SA's existence.
"Nothing really seems to have changed
much," said Harold Mulherin, the 1979 SGA
president, referring to the problems SA faces
today.
Mulherin said the main reason the SGA
was abolished in 1979 was because its power
to allocate student money was taken away,
which eliminated the SGA's main function.
The SGA wasn’t functioning as a student
voice, Mulherin says. After the excitement of
elections died down, the SGA really didn't do
much for the students except "get in the way
of people with ideas," he says.
However, with the election of Heath
Garrett as president and Ben Calhoun as
vice president, defeating Dolan and Corley,
another abolishment may be averted.
Garrett and Calhoun's platform promises
increased leadership in the SA, something
that critics say has been lacking.
One of the reasons cited for abolishment is
student apathy. Voter turnout for the SA
elections was 7 percent of the student body.
Voter turnout for the first SA elections in
1988 was 6.5 percent of the student body.
Tom Cochran, assistant to the vice
president for Student Affairs, is the SA's
adviser and also was SGA adviser during the
1979 abolishment. He says the problem with
the SA has been the misunderstanding of its
role as a representative of the student voice.
SA's function is not that of a programming
organization but "lies in the sphere of
influence of policy issues and lawmaking," he
said.
The failed stadium concert effort last
spring is an example of this
misunderstanding. The SA wanted to do the
programming for the concert, which is really
the job of the University Union, he says. This
year, the Union and the SA have worked
jointly on a spring stadium concert, although
efforts again were unsuccessful. One of the
seven organizers of the new student
government, Audrey Haynes, recalls how she
felt students needed an organization that
would provide information about things
going on at the University that affected
students. Although there were student
representatives in other organizations,
Haynes says she felt a student association
would be more effective in acting as a
student watchdog.
"I found from my own personal experience,
that a single student in one of these positions
has a difficult time getting information from
students and disseminating it back to the
students," she says.
And despite its recent decline in student
opinion, the SA has scored some victories. SA
lobbied the Georgia Legislature last winter
concerning three drug bills affecting college
students. One proposed bill, to divide bars
with separating walls to keep the underage
students away from the 21-year-old-and-over
crowd, was defeated partly due to the
lobbying of the SA and the Young Democrats,
Cochran says.'Tn my opinion that was the
finest hour our SA has had since it re
established."
However, the one-year term of senators
and leaders of the SA makes candidates
eager to cram in too much too soon and if
they don't get something visible
accomplished they feel unsuccessful,
Cochran says.
Another problem plaguing the SA is lack
of unity. “Over the course of the year, there
have been a lot of misunderstandings
between leaders of the SA and the senators,”
he says.
The fact that every senator had to take on
an individual project during the year didn’t
1
Tr»cy St#nl»*»K/The Red and Black
Heath Garrett: New SA president to emphasize
a few major projects
help much, he says. It contributed to
isolation of the senators from each other
instead of working towards a common goal,
such as the escort van, which was
established through group effort.
That kind of cooperation is part of what
Haynes wanted. "I envisioned that the
Student Association would join with other
student groups on campus... on issues that
affect all students rather than working on
very small projects that benefit a very few."
This advice seems to have been taken to
heart by the new SA leaders. The new
president of SA, Heath Garrett, says he's
going to emphasize four or five major
projects for the entire senate as opposed to
34 individual projects. Three committees will
work on these projects and stress the
individual responsibility on these
committees.
The SA does have to contend with new
student organizations that have emerged on
campus and other organizations such as the
Resident Hall Association which have
become more powerful since the SCA was
abolished in 1979. These organizations had
to compensate for the SGA's absence. Now
that the SA is back, these groups have a hard
time contracting back to their original
functions to make place for the SA again,
Cochran says. 'The SA just has to justify its
place in the sun."
lohanna van der Wal is a copy editor for The
Red and Black.