At a recent Student Senate meeting, Harold T. Respass, the Vice President of Internal Affairs, announced that the Student Government Association (SGA) wants the entire student body to elect the Campus Activities Board (CAB) president this spring. The announcement caused a stir at the meeting and has seemingly put the two organizations at odds.
A recent poll on www.thenewsargus.com revealed that students side slightly with the SGA, as 52 percent of students said that CAB’s president should be voted upon by the entire student body.
“The Campus Activities Board is responsible for a $45,000 budget that comes directly from student fees,” said SGA president Terrell Stephens. “We feel that the Campus Activities Board president should be accountable to the student body and not to the CAB individuals who vote for him.”
Stephens said that the problem with the current system is that CAB officials are elected by members of the organization but make decisions that affect the entire student body.
“CAB has a high level of autonomy in their system,” said Stephens. “Let’s say there are 20 members in CAB, those 20 members vote on the president. But that president and the Campus Activities Board make decisions that affect the whole campus and the campus climate and we feel that the students should have the greatest decision in who becomes president of CAB.”
Junior Wes Hayes, the current CAB president said, that having the student body vote on CAB’s president would be a violation of the SGA’s constitution, and he is firmly against open elections for the organization’s president.
“Campus Activities Board should not open up their elections, because according to the constitution SGA has written up, they are not an organization. All organizations have the right to elect their own officers and for SGA to try to take that right away from CAB would be in violation of their own constitution.”
“SGA states that they are here to enforce policy, but how are they following policy when they are dealing with an issue that is in violation of their own constitution,” said Hayes.
Hayes said he thinks the SGA is overstepping its boundaries and needs to focus on real issues.
“To be honest there should be no dispute and going on because once again SGA’s constitution states that all campus organizations have the right to elect their own officers, and CAB is an organization.
“SGA is here to enforce policy and be the voice of the student body by focusing on real issues that need to be addressed,” said Hayes.