The SGA is about to face the greatest challenge any Student Government Association has faced in the past five years. Not since 2003 has the university been faced with budget cuts. That year, the university suffered substantial cuts and dropped in the U.S. News and World Report rankings as class sizes swelled. SGA presidents protested with rallies and hunger strikes, but even those demonstrations couldn’t hold back the scalpel.
If this year’s SGA hopes to minimize the impact of this threat and protect students’ interests, they’re going to need to be more focused, more organized and more aggressive than they have been this semester. If they want to ensure the accessibility and quality of higher education, they need to be prepared for a fight.
So far, this year’s SGA has hinted at its potential to rally and empower students. The administration has picked up where the organization left off last year, tackling the recurring issues of crime, voter registration and environmental activism. Legislator Gabi Band has taken steps toward assembling a Greek neighborhood watch, a pragmatic and active approach that promises to enable students to protect themselves. The SGA has worked to organize students around the most important environmental issues impacting the campus and the surrounding area, tackling transportation and development issues. And Senior Vice President Joanna Calabrese spearheaded a planning forum for bike routes on the campus, attended by some 50 cyclists. A much-improved SGA website has granted students greater opportunity to monitor the activities of their elected representatives.
But if the SGA has any hope of fending off the impending cuts, they’ll have to step up their game in serious ways. President Jonathan Sachs is going to need to lead the organization in taking strong stances. He can’t waffle like he did at the Alcohol Summit, when he claimed to not have an opinion on the state’s drinking age. He can’t hem and haw and quietly demur like he did on the issue of legalizing slots in the state.
And if the SGA is going to be an effective voice for student interests, the whole organization needs to be on board. In 2003, university President Dan Mote delegated budget-cutting responsibilities to college deans, and one person can’t be in 13 places at once. Sachs’ earlier tension with Calabrese sets a worrying standard for cohesion within the organization. But even if the entire organization is working together, the SGA alone will not be enough to fight budget cuts; the SGA must organize and lead the student body. And although they have done some good work, the SGA has missed important opportunities. The time for selling back textbooks this semester is ending, and there is still no free online book exchange. Two-thirds of the way through this SGA’s tenure, talk of an online landlord rating system hasn’t produced any results.
Looking toward the spring, the SGA will need to accomplish a great deal, and quickly. They’ll need to have definite priorities and a clear plan to pursue them. Fortunately, Sachs has an ambitious vision for lobbying in the state capital. He plans to do everything in his power to recruit students to advocate on their own behalf, lobbying state delegates and senators from their home districts. We’ve heard ambitious lobbying plans in the past, but we hope that Sachs can capitalize on his experience in Annapolis and deliver on a larger scale than we’ve seen before. Affordability is only half of the story, however. Sachs recognizes that a tuition freeze is only desirable to the extent that the quality of higher education can be protected. But to maintain the quality of education on this campus may require as much lobbying in College Park as in Annapolis.
There has been a disquieting lack of forethought among the SGA administration as to how cuts to the university budget will be implemented. Recent legislation calling for reallocation of funding to the behavioral and social sciences college shows an awareness of funding inequities, but there needs to be a well developed list of funding priorities to fight for – particularly when it seems there will soon be program cuts.
Officials are refusing to discuss specifics before Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) presents his budget in January. But the writing is on the wall, and the SGA needs to be preparing for crisis. The student body is in dire need of focused, cohesive and creative leadership. We believe the SGA is best positioned and most responsible for providing that leadership. With limited time and resources next semester, the SGA won’t have the luxury of debating the merits of Juicy Campus – they need to prioritize and focus on what really matters. Sachs has said he wants every SGA to make the most of their year – we hope he makes the most of his, for all of our sakes.
