By

Has student government at the University of Louisville become a farce?
Probably most of the people reading this letter have little to no idea what SGA at U of L actually does. This is sad since SGA has a budget of more than $600,000 per year.
That equals about 160 full-time undergraduate students paying in-state tuition to cover the SGA budget, not including any over-realization or carry-over funds.
So what does SGA do, other than spend your tuition dollars?  According to the Preamble of the SGA Constitution, a few things SGA is supposed to do include:
4to create a stronger bond among students and among all student organizations
4to provide official channels through which student opinions may be expressed
4to improve student physical, social, and cultural welfare
4to improve the status of students in the University community
It seems that SGA is supposed to interact with students and serve the students. The public and students can come to SGA senate meetings, which meet twice a month to voice their concerns. But, “To speak at these meetings, students must have a senator yield his or her time to them,” stated SGA’s Web site. “Please contact your senator to arrange this.”
Does this seem like a policy that creates strong bonds between students? Does this look like a policy that allows students a channel to express their opinions?
One of the major complaints towards SGA concerning the mandatory meal plan, if not the major complaint, was that students were not consulted.
SGA President Rudy Spencer has said there were focus groups and many students were consulted. There wasn’t a public forum, or at least not one widely publicized, until after the plan went into effect. It was reactive not proactive, in the minds of many students.
And, now, where do students go to address their concerns in an open forum?
Not the Senate meetings because of its policy. They could go straight to President Spencer but that only addresses him, not all of SGA. As I spoke to an alumnus of U of L, and a veteran of SGA, concerning this lack of communication, he reminded me that SGA is not the elected representatives. SGA is the students of U of L.
The students, the SGA, no longer have an unfettered voice on campus.
I am sure many in SGA will take this letter to be a negative letter, a letter against the SGA. That is not my intention at all. I am one of  SGA’s biggest fans; I would not have served in the Student Senate for four years if I was not. I am also one of  SGA’s biggest critics because without constant questioning of their actions by any and all students, SGA could easily forget their mission.
My intention is to let SGA know that they need to wake up and do what they are supposed to do, not what they want to do.
They need to remember they were elected by the students, for the students and they serve the students. SGA needs to reevaluate what it does and how it does it.
Perhaps it is true, as members of your SGA Executive branch reported, that the U of L SGA is a model for other student governments across the country. Then again, that was before SGA adopted their policy prohibiting students from addressing their elected student representatives in an open forum.
Why is SGA afraid to hear what students have to say?
-Tim Brauch
Chief Justice
SGA Supreme Court