Last night the Student Association held a State of the SA meeting. While this address was also intended to be a regular Senate meeting, only half of the SA Senators stayed for the entire meeting. Rightfully, SA President Jon David Cole was not happy.
Cole said it was ridiculous that all the Senators couldn’t make it to the biggest meeting of the year. Although 30 of the 50 Senators arrived at the meeting, only 25 stayed until the end.
It’s disheartening that some Senators are too preoccupied to attend the State of the SA meeting. What’s worse is that this event reflects a recent trend of a decline in Senator appearances during their regular bi-monthly meetings.
Some may argue that an explanation for these no-show Senators could be other obligations. An elected Senator should not neglect his position for other things. Students elect Senators to represent them at these various meetings. Even though SA Senators are not paid for serving on the Senate, they made a commitment when they ran for office to represent the students.
Senators should look to their constituency and start taking their jobs for the students seriously. Otherwise, what is the point in electing representatives?
A bill was passed last night to cut back on the number of Senators. This is a good idea. Perhaps if 50 Senators can’t make it to a meeting twice a month, then fewer members could manage to show up when they’re supposed to.
We encourage the current Senators to step up and use their positions for the students. There’s still time left to make up for past mistakes.
Any continuation of what happened last night should not be acceptable. The Senators should be doing their jobs. And they need to start now. If not for themselves, then for the people who made the effort to vote for them.
The Reflector editorial board is made up of opinion editor Jed Pressgrove, news editor Sara McAdory, assistant news editor Wade Patterson, sports editor Ross Dellenger, entertainment editor Tyler Stewart, managing editor Dustin Barnes and editor in chief Elizabeth Crisp.