(franchises)
Best Worst Kept Secret Series: SGA DEBATE
Here’s the deal, the SGA Debate sucks. Here’s the bigger deal, the idea of the organization of SGA doesn’t suck.
The SGA was nice enough to invite Michael and I to moderate the SGA debate this Tuesday, along with Herald Editor Susie Laun and Heraldite Katie Brandenburg. We liked that. We enjoyed preparing questions, asking people around us what they would like to know, and I especially enjoyed finding out that Presidential Nominee Kayla Shelton has seen Former SGA Pres. Jonathon Boles in his under-panties. (I hope Shelton doesn’t take too much offense to that statement being brought up over and over because that’s the way it is with politics and the media, you gotta’ watch your soundbites, lady!)
THE BAD NEWS FIRST:
Now, Why the SGA Debate Sucks? Simple terms: They aren’t trying hard enough.
No Attendance:
Nobody was there. (By that, I mean the Herald reported 32 people there, 6 of which were mine and Michael’s supportive friends, 6 of which were candidates, and the remaining 20 were current/former members of SGA -BIG SWEEPING ASSUMPTION.)
I do not understand why EVERY year somebody asks the SGA, why does nobody give a crap about your program and EVERY year, they blame PR, they blame student apathy, or they just look googly-eyed around the room and throw out an old baseball adage ala the W. Bush era press conference.
Do you know what really irked me about this? Today, I decided to find the SGA facebook group, so I could join. So, I searched WKU SGA. 16 results. ALL Of which are ELECT So-N-SO groups for individuals (some current, some expired) and a few that got thrown in the bundle like Shelton’s Student Food Forum (props, ma’am.) and SoulTrain’s “We Want Soccer” Campaign. Ah, nostalgia.
Now, what pisses me off, and rightfully so, is that there is NO group for WKU SGA. (There is a wussy Fan Page of 70 members.) Now, if Kevin Smiley, Kayla Shelton, Kendrick Bryan, Ben Lineweaver, Brittany-Ann Wick and Justin Thurman have a combined 1,885 members in their groups, how is there NO SGA facebook Group, and how does the piddly fan page have 70 fans? Do I smell too much love for individual interests?
My point? I have witnessed people who are trying to sell CARS make a FB PROFILE for their CAR. There are groups for every short-lived collegiate cause in town! Every crappy band, real or imaginary, in Bowling Green has a group that spams you about every crappy show they have at Tidball’s. Now, why? Why is there no SGA Group? Why isn’t SGA on every dang social networking site there is? It is an online generation, you know this candidates, because you all have FB groups of your own. I mean, if I can’t follow you on Twitter, how can I follow you in student leadership?
Yucky Question-Answering Galore:
All of the moderators asked some very specific, direct questions. Even with the low attendance, some person wandering past might have enjoyed popping a squat had the candidates put some NO BULL in their vocab. I understand that government is government, even the United States Presidential Debates pushes the snooze button every now and then, but this was just yarn and yarn and yarn.
For example, it was noted at the debate that all the candidates running are either current/former Greeks or current/former Honors College members. And a question was asked, How are other non-Greek, non-honors student interests protected and is this a big problem?, to presidential nominees Shelton and Smiley. Both candidates, looking a little feather-rustled, never answered a strict yes or no. Both started on tangents about how they don’t care what kind of student a student is (as long as they have the required GPA), that BY GOD they can come be in SGA. Well, good. Did you hear that? This isn’t verbatim, but a guesstimate of tone, “They [the students] can come be in SGA.”
Miss Shelton, Mr. Smiley, I like you both. But it’s time to be on the real like Flavor Flav, students aren’t knocking down your door. You have to seek them out. (Let me note that Smiley did pledge to sit somewhere different every week to engage students, props.) One of you will be obligated to branch out when you serve as this representative of the student body. You must find: Students that you do not know. Students that you think are losers. Or winners. And students that could be in the grand FB group one of you should be starting ASAP. Somebody wise and slightly gangster once told me, “You can’t see the big picture when you’re stuck inside the frame.” That’s the issue here, not that you’re bad people.
ALSO, on the questions-answering, the SGA Debate blew on this account because the candidates often didn’t consider their audience. Audience-considering is very important. Even for me, as I write this, I wonder how many toes I will have stepped on, even though I am writing this from my heart, with pure intentions.
A member of the audience asked the candidates what they had accomplished with SGA in the last year, big projects, whatever. And every single candidate launched into a disgustingly masturbatory laundry list of committees they had chaired or been on, positions they had held, and conferences and events they had attended. The problem? The average student has no idea what those committees do, what IVOPVSPSP is, or why they should care. ( I must note: EVP Nominee Kendrick Bryan did level-down with the rest of us and list things he did by actually saying what he did, things like sponsoring viewing parties for debates/sports events, props.)
NOW THE GOOD NEWS:
(This means keep reading, not start griping about my angsty bad news part. )
The SGA is a great organization. And if I didn’t believe that the candidates I briefly got to know on Tuesday night weren’t truly in it for a good cause, the cause of the students, I would never slap them so hard on the wrist.
Yes, they are all there to pad their resumes a little bit, but I’m at ROR to gain experience for my future, too. Ain’t no shame in that game. The thing is, just like I REALLY want to work in magazines, and ROR is my outlet, they (for the most part) REALLY want to work in politics/government/good causes and that is their outlet.
The SGA can change their image, but they have to be realistic about their image, first. To become the phoenix, you must rise from the ashes, right? The good news is that SGA is a giant cigarette-butt hole right now. They don’t have anywhere to go but up. People don’t know that SGA sucks: They don’t know what SGA is. GOOD THING
Here are my suggestions (challenges) for the SGA to help them promote the organization/elections, let’s see how they do.
Basic Understanding: To Become Cool, Be Seen at Another Event Deemed Cool.
Challenge: Bring the SGA Swag/Table/Banner/Goodness to MAYHEM tomorrow. It’s a free event with a huge student turnout, and I bet if you asked nicely, Mr. Station Manager Max Meiners might even give you some mic time to address the crowd. If someone addresses the crowd, pick someone memorable or cool-seeming and that doesn’t get constant cases of mouth diarrhea. And CONSIDER the AUDIENCE.
Challenge 2: Don’t stop there. Artchrivals Studios opens Friday, and they have another concert on Saturday. Send a task force. Stop by. Or, get permission to set up in Fountain Square Park during the Thursday night bar-blitz during the week. Send the SGA on the PARTY BUS, Provide-A-Ride. Video-record it all. You have the means. It could be a viral video in no time.
Basic Understanding: To Be Taken Seriously, Be Funny Witty First.
Challenge: Make a HUGE flyer, or a gazillion little ones, or get a man to dress up in a Tedde Hardin costume. (That’ll bring tha’ ladies.) Make a scene on campus, and ADMIT your crappy election turnout. Remember when President Obama screwed up and said “Hey, I screwed up.” and everything was okay with the world? Follow his lead.
Challenge 2: Don’t stop with the flyering. Set up 20 laptops in a row outside Garrett and ask people to sit down for a moment and vote. Get some unbiased, non-candidates to do this, obviously. Pay them, if you must. Call in favors with ATTRACTIVE people you know or POPULAR people you know. They’ll draw crowds. Perhaps even dress them scantily and follow the theme SGA is finally LETTING IT ALL HANG OUT. SEX SELLS, ladies and gents.
Basic Understanding: Make People Feel Special, Without Too Much Self Promotion. Get People Somewhere, then Remind them You’re There.
Challenge: Have a Contest for poets/bands/artists/whatever. The top three get a show at (insert venue here). Winner gets headlining gig. (Why three winners? Brings more friends/fans.) Put the SGA logo on all the crap, but not big. The flyers should say “STUPID BAND NAME, featuring OTHER STUPID BAND NAME, and THA’ BAND” and then at the bottom, a nice little SGA insignia.
Challenge 2: Once you get people at this thing, have them vote on something else fun. Whatever you want. Slip in some questions about bands, whatever, and also, put an important student forum question on there. If you want to know what students really want, they need to feel comfortable. Comfort, then confess.
That is all for now. I apologize for the length of this blog, but I feel my obligation in the media is to report, and as a supporter of the SGA is to guide. So, I have reported and made guide-like suggestions. I encourage anyone who reads this and has suggestions for the SGA to comment. And I encourage these comments to be straight-to-the-hip truths.
The Best Kept Secret here? SGA does not suck. The Worst Kept Secret? SGA sucks. It’s time to make a change.
Comment [3]
Wow. Thank you for this piece. Hopefully word will start getting around about SGA, or better, they’ll get it out there themselves. You hit the nail on the head by saying that its not that students don’t care—they do—they just don’t know.
Mary, I think you raise some valid and indeed excellent points. SGA needs to modernize, and that’s the one thing that I’ve seen in my 5 years (damn, I’m old) in this organization. It’s a tough row to hoe, but it works.
There used to be an SGA facebook group, and it had about as many members as a Rod Blagojevich presidential campaign would have staffers. The fan page was set up by a former IT director and at the time seemed a marvelous idea. Another Facebook group isn’t out of the realm of possibility, but it isn’t really a solution to the problem either.
The fact is students don’t want an online presence, they want an on-campus presence. Yesterday afternoon I heard a group of transfer students complaining about how this university treats transfer students. One of them joined me for a fifteen minute conversation in my office. Two hours later, her friend came to find her, and we kept talking about their concerns for another hour and a half. It was a good conversation and there are a lot of things I want to address before the semester is over (and I officially retire).
What’s awesome about this is that one of the students told me that she had been at WKU for 2 years and didn’t think SGA gave two shits about the students. She now saw that at least someone cared. This made me feel good and made me feel like perhaps there is hope. This is what the candidates need to do, and I give props to all of them for pledging – publicly or privately – to do this.
Yes, it takes guts to walk up to a gaggle of strangers and say “Hi, I’m so and so and I’m in SGA. I heard your conversation and want to help.” But that’s what we’ve got to do.
Now, to be fair, part of the problem is on the student body, too. Let’s be real: trying to galvanize students for anything in this day and age is difficult. The ONE campaign did a wonderful job, but many of them were friends or associates of the people in charge. That’s how it is with most organizations.
The difference is, those people that turned out for the ONE Campaign see SGA as an antiquated tool of the establishment. SGA needs a revolution, something I wish I would have brought but obviously did not. Perhaps Kayla, Kevin, Ben, Kendrick, Brittany-Ann and Justin can do just that. I think that, working together, SGA can. It’s just a matter of getting hip. One thing we have to realize is that we’re not 40 year old professionals; we’re 20 year old college students. Our base is the same. We need to energize our base, and to do that, we need to be a little rebellious and not so worried to tick off the administration. In my time in SGA this is one of the big struggles I’ve dealt with: how to get people to realize we can’t be afraid to ruffle some feathers.
Here’s the trick, though: we have political capital, and we have to decide where to spend it. We can tick off the administration, but in doing so, are we going to hurt the student cause in the end? It’s a tricky game that, after five years, I’m still not an expert on. It’s a fine line we walk.
Dressing sexy people scantily isn’t the answer, but being more of a presence on campus is. You’ve offered some excellent points, and I hope the SGA officials-to-be will take this as what it is: constructive criticism.
If 5 years in SGA has taught me anything, it’s that we can do anything. We just have to find new means. We’re Millennials just like you, and we ought to start acting like it.
By the way: the next person in SGA to poke fun at me for Tweeting on Twitter needs to read this blog. I told you it’s the way of the future! (LOL!)
Skylar Baker-Jordan
Executive Vice President
Student Government Association
PS: I am neither Greek nor Honors, nor have I ever been. Just goes to show that there even your average chunky gay kid can make it in SGA.
— Skylar Baker-Jordan · Apr 9, 03:12 PM · #
Skylar, I can see why U are suited for government, yarn, yarn, yarn. You state the “students” do not want a online presence they want a on campus presence. My point, get an audience first then have them come on campus.