There is a disturbing trend in the Appalachian State University student body. Most students know close to nothing about their Student Government Association.
    According to a recent questionnaire conducted by The Appalachian, students showed they felt SGA was not only out of touch with the student body, but also doing a poor to mediocre job.
    This data from 91 randomly chosen students presents an alarming truth. According to the SGA constitution, “the chief purposes of the Student Government Association of Appalachian State University shall be to communicate the concerns of students to the university administration and to promote the general welfare of the student body.”
    So SGA is meant to act as an avenue for the student body to the administration. It appears that this avenue has either disappeared or is blocked to thru traffic.
    With 78 percent of students responding they did not know their SGA representatives, and almost half of the responses admitting they know nothing at all about SGA, the organization’s effectiveness is up for debate.
    Dino Dibernardi, director of the center for student involvement and leadership and the adviser for SGA admitted that the group “needs to do a better job of getting the word out about the senate.”
    Allison L. Laffin, the organization’s current longest serving senator said the questionnaire results showed nothing new. “As long as I’ve been here this has pretty much been the sentiment,” Laffin said.
    This discouraging response can be traced back to an inactive year in the senate. Ineffectiveness shown by the organization as a whole is one problem. With the exception of the voter registration drive, SGA has shown little drive for students.
    Yes, there has been legislation written (and argued, and argued and argued again on the senate floor), but has it been legislation essential to the needs of the student body?
    Legislation supporting or not supporting the United Nations is probably not going to have the same affect on the student body as say, legislation opposing student fee increases.
    The point is, SGA seems to have dropped the ball and let down the only group of people they should be concerned with: the students. Blame it on student apathy. Blame it on internal strife. You could even pin the blame on the SGA senate. Any way you look at it, the poll results send a clear message: something must be changed.
    The worst thing SGA could do with the information generated by this poll is ignore it.
    Looking away from the information presented is the same as saying to the student body, “We see that there is a problem and we don’t care.”
    Look for the weak points within the organization. Where is the disconnection between SGA and the students occurring? How can this be remedied? Is there a different, better way some things can be handled?
    Once these weak points are pin pointed, fix them. Act immediately and responsibly in recovering what was once the organization’s main goal. Put the student body’s needs back in the forefront of SGA priorities.