SGA needs to focus on student needs

Many college issues concern students and faculty alike. For many years, students have complained about a poorly lit campus. Crimes, including assaults, occur on and around the campus, and the inadequate lighting has not been improved beyond replacing a few broken bulbs.

The absence of a clinic where students can get nonemergency assistance is another concern, especially for special needs students. The health center was shut leaving 23,000 students without help for minor emergencies.

During Sweet Treats with SGA, many opinions and concerns, including the ones listed above, were voiced.

What is being done with the information, and where are the attempts to seek a resolution?

Among the problems are motorcycle parking, transparency at all levels and the spectre of increased student activity fees.

The chancellor proposes moving teachers around like chess pieces. Meanwhile, class sections keep getting cut, creating a greater hardship in reaching the district's coveted 50-50 ratio of full-time faculty to adjuncts, likely necessitating more transfers.

With so much decision-making that doesn't serve students well, it seems the Student Government Association would be focused on representing the interests of students.Officers focus on blaming The Ranger — for simply reporting on SGA activities — and now they refuse interviews with The Ranger.

SGA member Lizzie Allen, Psychology Club president and education and psychology sophomore, was quoted in a November article headlined "Student leaders detail event plans, complaints about The Ranger," saying, "They are putting such a negative spin on things, and all it's doing is creating division, and all of us in here are trying to create that community that we love about SAC."

How does refusing to speak to reporters of the college news media help to develop a sense of community?

If Student Government President Jacob Wong, a psychology sophomore, claims to be the "voice of the student," why not take up their grievances and set aside the petty behavior?