Welcome to my second foray into uncovering the mysterious shrouded being that is SGA. Today I want to talk about a very basic but life-changing epiphany I had about student government: student government is like…the real US government. Wow! Here to give us a delightful refresher on how US government works, I gladly present School House Rock.
Written in the bylaws for my position as Secretary of Web & Media is that I write and send out a newsletter to everybody involved in SGA talking about what’s been going on at UMass. This seems like a very unnecessary obligation to me for a couple of reasons. The first reason being that I alone just don’t have a solid grasp on the entirety of what’s happening in student government. Along with this I don’t see it as entirely fair for me to sum up and represent the work of somebody else. They are the expert on what they are doing, not me. Finally, I don’t want to be sending out newsletters exclusively to a specific group of SGA involved folk, I think that everybody should have the opportunity to receive updates on what we’ve been up to.
The start of a new semester brings to students another exciting period: Recruitment. The first few weeks of the semester mark the time when students can check out the Greek Community on campus and decide if a Fraternity or Sorority would add to their college experience. Recruitment varies depending on the organization, from structured Panhellenic Sorority recruitment to rush parties and events hosted by Fraternities and Multicultural Organizations.
Now that we’ve made it passed the first few introductory weeks of the Fall semester, many students are under the impression that it is too late to join or even look into RSO’s on campus. However, this could not be farther from the truth! Once schedules are set and you start getting used to course loads, it’s much easier to find your own niche on campus. RSO’s can be the perfect escape for those of us who constantly find themselves caught up in the same routine.
Ahhh this question. Being Speaker, this is a question I get constantly. Almost on a daily basis, I hear things like “Jarred, why should I care about SGA or follow what they are doing?” and “How does what a bunch of students do affect my life?”