With the re-election of Spencer Dove to the position of SGA President comes a reevaluation of the past year, celebrating its accomplishments and addressing the current issues of Dove's administration.
Re-evaluating the past year, Dove believes that several accomplishments establish 2007-2008 as a successful year. The improvement in social life Dove noted as a major achievement.
"We have more social programming," Dove stated.
"As of Feb. 23, our budget allocation has increased in order to support social life on this campus," he added.
Another accomplishment, remarked Dove, is the improved communication between the administration and the SGA.
"It's the message of optimism that we keep delivering to the administration. With the Student Affairs issue earlier this year, students voiced their concerns, and President Tipson heard it. It's amazing how much more proactive it is," said Dove.
Dove also noted the success of the political facet of the SGA. The creation of the Bill of Rights, which is in the process of being ratified, is a result of long hours of negotiation.
"It took many months to get that done, so many meetings, and so much hard work," Dove said.
In addition, the Senate is becoming much more active and more vocal, Dove said.
While the success of this year's SGA is noticeable, many students feel there are still issues that need to be addressed.
During the Candidate Mixer on Tuesday, issues such as communication to students and alumni relations were brought up while questioning the candidates for President, Vice President, and Financial Controller.
Dove's opponent Arianne Sellers stated a large problem is that the SGA's "open-door policy" doesn't make the entire student population feel comfortable about getting involved.
"The SGA needs to bring back the sense of open government-it's meant to be a voice of the students," she said.
Sellers noted that "The SGA has become more a status thing, it needs to get back to being approachable. You only see 20 percent [of the student population] getting involved, from SGA and Greek life."
Kevin McGarry, Speaker of the Senate, said it's been a pretty successful year for the SGA.
" We managed to take on big problems, especially the social life crisis," McGarry said.
He mentioned, however, that construction and the retention issue is still a problem.
"The next group is going to face some challenges with some campus space going offline, there'll be an interesting campus dynamic next year," McGarry said.
Originally Spencer Dove planned not to run for a second term.
In a statement made last year, Dove said: "Over the next year you can expect a lot of change within and around your Student Government. Let it be known now that I am a one term President- I have no intentions of seeking reelection for the SGA Presidency. If the situation deems it necessary, then I will consider rerunning, but as far as right now is concerned, I am pulling a Teddy Roosevelt and acting within one term only."
It was "an immense amount of pressure" that changed Dove's original decision. "It was not an easy decision to come by," Dove stated, and according to Dove, others felt his reelection was "necessary for a stable SGA."
Dove also stated that his original intentions to not take a salary of $1500 per semester changed due to encouragement of fellow students.
His initial purpose of rejecting a salary was so clubs and organizations could use the money for their benefit.
"I did not want to take a salary, but the executive board, senators, and friends did not agree. If I tried to remove my salary, people were saying they were going to restore it. Recognizing that reality, I worked with my departments to cut out about 8,000 to 12,000 dollars so that clubs and organizations would have access to that money," he said.
Dove stated that among his many goals for his next term, his primary one is leaving a stable SGA for his successor.
"When we're gone, we want to know that we did everything we could to make it stable," Dove said.
He also hopes for a more involved Senate. "It's about moving from a revolutionary state and having more non-Senators in on Senate meetings, and having those problems addressed together." In addition to new improvements, it's also about continuing the standards that have been set up during this past year. "We also are continuing to maintain balance of power between the student body and the administration," and he added, "we are going to get that Bill of Rights into the Student Handbook."
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