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“The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government.”
-Franklin D. Roosevelt

Uprooted with ineffective policies, poor communication efforts and dwindling student involvement, the Student Government Association at the University of Louisville often struggles to balance a disconnect with the student body while upholding their duties as campus leaders.
Although our peers balance work, school and other responsibilities, it is their obligation, as elected student officials, many of whom have their tuition paid for through their position, to adequately represent their constituents: all 21,000-plus of them.
Effectiveness
How can a student government be effective with such an embarrassing voter turnout? Staring at a 10 percent voter turnout in this past spring election, how can this process be viewed as anything more than a resume booster or a popularity contest?
More unsettling than this is the fact that the Executive Board of SGA only have one year in office to produce any sort of result. With this short period of time to work in, it is hard to imagine any type of continuum between administrations in terms of policies or ideas.
Effective student governments do not simply develop new leaders, but they develop policies and initiatives that will affect future students at U of L.  One thing that could make this happen is the development of an SGA Master Plan. The university has plotted out its course with its master plan for the next 10-15 years. Why can’t SGA implement an organized plan similar to the university’s?
Vice President for Student Affairs Tom Jackson said that when the university put together its 2020 plan, there were plans for SGA in it as well. That’s great and all, but the university doesn’t have to tell SGA what their course is going to be. SGA needs to be motivated about determining its own goals for the future, and developing an infrastructure that will ensure the fulfillment of those goals long after one SGA President has been replaced by another.
Communication
Honestly, how productive are SGA Senate meetings? If it is a Tuesday night on Belknap campus, there is a good chance that over in the Belknap Research Building, several senators will be locked in a blood-boiling debate about the use of a particular word in a new amendment to the SGA constitution. Unfortunately, this type of thing is not an anomally.  These debates occur frequently and have nothing to do with the concerns of students.
Another problem is that SGA says they welcome input from students, but don’t have an adequate mechanism in place for hearing this input at senate meetings.
During an October  senate meeting, time was scheduled for students (outside the senate) to voice their concerns regarding the 2009 meal plan. Those students simply could not raise their hands and wait to be acknowledged by the chair as they had to wait for a senator to yield their time to them in order to speak.
The senate should not be weighed down by its own procedures when it comes to student input. Students are the ones who cast the votes and deserve to have their voices considered in the decision making process. Why not hold more open forums for students to voice their concerns outside the formal climate of the SGA senate?
Clearly, students need to be motivated enough to actually use their voice in the process. The communication game is a two way street, and in the case of the meal plan, the speed of student reaction has been astonishingly slow.
The Louisville Cardinal published details about the plan in its Aug. 26 issue. SGA officials passed out 7,000-8,000 fliers earlier in the semester about the plan. Student Activities officials had booths with information about the new requirement at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium during the first week of school. Still, student reaction didn’t heat up until early October.
The students must directly question and confront issues involving their student government. Students do have a voice, but they must learn (of course with significant guidance from SGA and university officials) to step up and act upon their concerns.
But for SGA, it isn’t sufficient to hide behind statements like this one, made by SGA Executive Vice President Mike Dennis: “It is hard to engage a student who does not care.”
You have all of our sympathies, Mike, but it should be a goal of SGA to make students care and find a medium or format through which they can let their voices be heard. It is difficult, but clearly not impossible.
SGA saw a 10 percent voter turnout this past year in its election. Michael Anthony, an affiliate of the American Student Government Association and former SGA adviser, said that most colleges expect at least a 25 percent minimum of participation from its student body. If this type of participation is possible at other universities, it is possible here at U of L.
And as a daunting future looms, the time to step up is now.