The SGA Collaborative

Donny

Professionalism and Privacy

Where does the line of professionalism and privacy meet? I don’t believe there is a clear line. Certainly you can mix both but the results vary.

As I’ve said before I started this blog for more professional reasons. My life has changed a lot since I started this blog. I still participate in Student Government, but coming from a two-year commuter institution with a high transfer rate our SGA is little more than a committee of students passionate about our school and our organizations. Our only “real” power is deciding parking ticket appeals and budgeting funds to student organizations. On paper this seems like an impressive task, and while I’m not trying to undermine the importance of student participation in Student Affairs, it’s hard to accept this responsibility when so many administrators can “veto” our votes. I’m using “veto” in the most vague terms…

On a professional and private level I feel like this is an important topic for my blog. Professionally I can receive great feedback from fellow students, student affair professionals, and administrators. Privately I can vent my frustrations and figure out how I’m going to let this situation affect me.

I’m lucky enough to be involved with a great blog, The SGA Collaborative, where a free flow of information and topics are discussed from the perspective of my fellow SGA members. On this blog a beautiful mixture of professionalism and privacy reflect each blog post and blogger’s comments. I find it highly beneficial that I’m lucky enough to participate in a field where not only professionalism and privacy can coexist, but it is actually encouraged.

To learn more:

Twitter #sgachat, #sachat

http://sgablogs.org/

http://studentactivism.net/

Donny

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15
Feb 11

Dealing with Rumors and Untruths in SGA

“Nobody believes a rumor here in Washington until it’s officially denied.” – Edward Cheyfitz

Rumors are one of the most rampant and sometimes creative problems in SGA. They are also some of the most annoying and harmful aspects to SGA, administrators, and students. Rumors have the power to crumble governments and harm people. Rumors can start with the intent to spread truthful information, some come from the media, others from officials, and many from malicious person with specific interest.

With the budget crisis and cuts in education going on in every state SGA needs to be proactive in heading of rumors before they influence hasty decisions and financial waste. When the rumor of a $300 million budget cut effecting the University System of Georgia started, with a little help from the media, the students and SGA members where thrown in a panic. Sensing this, college administrators started immediately setting up meetings with students and representation from SGA and many organization. These meetings started off with the repeating of many rumors including: campus shutdowns, tuition hikes, faculty cutbacks, degree cuts, etc.

Many in the university system organized and started gaining support through Facebook USG Students for Quality Education and Rumor Meters on their websites (Georgia Highlands College). Both these actions helped qualm fears and put many at ease. Many SGA representatives attend these meetings and contributed to easing the rumors.

The best way for SGA to deal with rumors is head on with truth and understanding. In a time with rumors are easy to spread with technology and panic many SGA have the right people to set a standard for dealing with rumors and ease fear with help from friends, administrators, and mentors.

Dan

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12
Feb 11

Rebuilding an SSA: Part 2- First Steps

So, rather than try and come up with titles for everyone one of these posts, I am just going to make it a series of posts with a subtitle if I can come up with one. Dull, and lacking creativity, but I only have so much time on my hands.

We had an in-person meeting today at UMB, and we had 5 campuses and 2 different systems represented. During our 1.5 hour meeting we managed to identify our campaigns, fill out a strategy chart, and formally chose to head in the direction of forming an SSA- rather than become “just” a student arm of PHENOM. We also managed to set the date, time, and location of our next in-person meeting, set an agenda for our weekly conference call, and build energy for the upcoming campaigns ahead this semester.

After today’s meeting, I am pumped for for the time ahead. We have made our first steps forward, and I am really excited to pull in more organizers as the semester goes on. I also am extremely excited our SGA is far more receptive towards an SSA than it was just a year or two ago. I cannot wait to see what role UMB plays in this process. Given our proximity to the State House, and a committee that could use a more specific directive, I am really excited to see what role UMB’s students, and our SGA, plays in this process.

Next up: We need to formalize the upcoming SSA’s structure, name, and bylaws. It may not be the most exciting part of organizing, but it is completely necessary if we want this to continue long after we all graduate and are the first alums of Massachusetts’ new SSA.

Dan

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28
Jan 11

Scheduling Time!

I just realized just how much of this blog has update in the title, to say nothing of apologies for not posting as often as I should. Maybe I will try and add it to my weekly schedule & force myself to regularly update so this doesn’t continually happen. Anyway, on with the show.

Sorry I haven’t been frequent or regular with any of my updates. I have had a pretty crazy few months. Between 4 classes and 2 jobs last semester, not to mention my life outside of school, I haven’t had much free time. Of course I will probably have more of the same this semester with 2 out of my 5 classes slated to be incredibly difficult, my student government work, my life, and plans I have in the works that I will probably talk more about in a couple weeks (if I manage to make the time, of course).

The USG seems to be coming together a lot better than I had hoped this semester. The Executive Cabinet is finally getting filled, and the Judiciary will be gaining another member as well next week- assuming all candidates are approved. We are running low on Senate members though, and our bylaws call for special elections. While that could be good in terms of manpower, it comes at a very difficult time- since our elections for the 3rd Senate and our 2nd popular presidential election are about 2 months away. I just worry that all that advertising for special elections for senators to serve until May, and then having yet another ad blitz for our elections will drive down turnout and will confuse some students. I do not want to see a drop in voter turnout back to what we experienced prior to last year’s 12% or so. In fact, I was hoping it might go up again. I am sure our elections committee, which will hopefully be appointed next week, will do a great job- but it will be a lot for them to handle. All I know is that it will be an incredibly interesting experience.

Also, despite recent improvements- Senate turnover is increasing again. Granted, now the turnover is for many different issues than before (which is somewhat reassuring), but I worry that people will not step up. I have been trying to draw people into stepping up- and I have had some success- but we need more people than have decided to step up. I really hope I am wrong, and that this thought process is one of an exhausted individual who should really be in bed. I guess we will see in the coming weeks. I would love to find out that I am just late in receiving an update and more people want to take on more responsibility. It is certainly possible because of the chaos of add/drop period and unsettled class schedules.

Of course, with all this it is pretty clear I am pretty loaded down with work, I need to step back a bit from #SGAchat. Chances are I will definitely still participate when I can, but I am not sure I can continue to moderate the discussion, set up topic selection, and all that kind of work. I will still contribute to the SGA Collaborative (most likely through this blog), but that will likely be the extent of it. If you are interested in taking over, or learning a bit more about what acting as MOD requires, let me (@danmcds) and @tomkrieglstein know via DM on Twitter, or via e-mail. I hate to step back from such an amazing idea, but it deserves someone who can put the effort in to do the work already required, in addition to some recruitment efforts.

Thanks for bearing with me. Sorry if any of these areas ramble too much, or for the likely choppiness of this post. I promise I am heading to bed now, so no more sleep-induced paragraphs!

Dan

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16
Nov 10

Inter-student Government Discussions

Hey everyone,

I just got reports back from some delegates we sent to a group of Boston area schools discussing their SGAs. However, from my understanding, many of them seem disorganized, and seemed to want to keep discussions to a small group of people. While I can see the advantages, and fearing that a large body could cause break downs in communication, what are your thoughts?

I think having a large group conversation can be incredibly valuable. That’s why I love ASGA’s conferences and think they are so useful- because it gives SGA’s that opportunity. That being said, I would certainly like to see regional discussions happen much more often than once a year- or heck, perhaps even see if it can be made into an annual statewide meeting. Plus, the way I see it, it would allow us to look at local issues, find common ground, and perhaps work together a lot more easily if we are meeting on a semi-regular basis. Maybe this could even be an intermediary step prior to starting (or re-starting) some sort of statewide student association.

Based on what I heard about the meeting this weekend, the group of schools that met isn’t quite sure of their direction- and have the disadvantage of not having enough people within the network to organize/expand/etc effectively. A few of us here at UMass Boston have floated around the idea of moving forward with a similar meeting reaching out to institutions across the state- especially public institutions, with whom we share more in common than with the private institutions we joined the ranks of this weekend. I almost see it as a regional, in-person #SGAchat with the topics of discussion being recommended beforehand by students across the state (or perhaps beyond if any of you are in the New England region and would be interested in such a conference/summit/whatever you would like to call it).

Do any of you have a similar meetings, outside of conferences run by outside groups like ASGA? What do you think about this #SGAchat like idea? I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Automatically cross-posted from One Part Student…

Donny

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08
Nov 10

Road to Adoption – Part 2

… Continuing down my road on becoming the best Red Rover student coordinator I can be, I find myself at a fork in the road. The first path I choose is blocked a short way through due to several factors! I now choose the second path. As I travel along I notice there are fewer FY students I meet along the way. With Red Rover barley hanging on during orientation I must innovate to to meet my fellow travelers. After a few meetings with the higher-ups we decide to examine different tiers of Red Rover adoption.

We come up with a customized new handout to give students during orientation. They work great, but there are still too many we miss…. to be continued

Dan

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01
Oct 10

What day is best for an 8PM EST #SGAChat? [POLL]

Based on discussion in this week’s chat, it looks like we may want to find another day to hold #SGAchat. The poll below closes on Thursday at 12AM EST. Depending on the results, the following #SGAchat may be moved to a new day, so be sure to vote!

And the results from last week’s poll:

Dan

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01
Oct 10