Letter to the Editor

SGA responsible, active in election

Dear Editor,

I must say that I am completely appalled by the carelessness in printing the house editorial entitled "Apathetic [Student Government Association] and students fail each other" on election day. As a fairly active first-year member of the organization, I found the article both unfounded and inappropriate. By all means, the SGA is far from perfect — I am never one to pretend otherwise. However, this editorial was salted and peppered with false accounts and information.

While the editorialist commented that nothing was discussed or debated in Tuesday, March 23's meeting as a result of the absence of a quorum, he or she failed to mention that reports expressing the goals and accomplishments of individual committees were discussed at length, and that a presentation was given on a leadership conference that introduced new suggestions for improvement to the SGA.

Additionally, in terms of election forums' advertisements, signs certainly were posted across campus, contrary to the information provided in the editorial. While a mass e-mail was not sent out to inform students of the forum, this was because an e-mail was sent out to remind students to vote. Overusing this mass e-mail system becomes obnoxious and ineffective. Based on the fact that student platforms were listed on the Web site, this vote reminder was a more important e-mail to forward to JMU students.

The editorialist made the statement that "Today's election results should reflect the change the campaign [Your SGA] hoped to inspire last fall," but failed to realize his or her own effect on this initiative. As an active supporter of a number of candidates, I spent a healthy portion of my day seeking the support and votes of my fellow students.

On at least six different occasions during the day, this editorial was cited as a reason for not voting in the election, specifically stating, "You guys (the SGA) can't do anything, anyway."

In constructing the penultimate sentence in the article which read, "Students can't, in good conscience, vote for a student leader in an organization that is unable to hold meetings [by] the fault of its own members," the editorialist clearly was being counterintuitive if he or she truly hoped to open the lines of communication between SGA and the rest of the JMU student body.

There is no excuse for senators leaving meetings before said meetings have ended. However, the way in which this information was presented made the entire Student Government body seem apathetic — something that is entirely untrue. I'm sure that the select group of individuals who left the meeting early will be reprimanded and dealt with on a case-by-case basis, but the hard work and dedication of the majority of the Senate should not go unrecognized as a result of individual absences.

The SGA can proudly proclaim that voter turnout increased over 3 percentage points this year with a voter turnout of 3,020 students — roughly 22 percent of the student body — not half bad for an apathetic SGA in a state in which only 8 percent of voters under the age of 25 voted in the 2000 presidential election.

Tina Giustiniani
freshman
IDLS major