New SGA President Andrew Rose addressed the general inefficiencies of the organization and university in his first official speech, saying the new administration has the potential to be the most effective one ever.
Rose was inaugurated as Student Government Association president yesterday on McKeldin Mall, replacing Aaron Kraus. He vowed to make his term the “defining year” for the SGA.
“The SGA has great potential, yet it all too often fails to deliver,” Rose said in his prepared speech. “The SGA has never seen itself operate on all cylinders at once.”
Rose pointed out the group’s underachieving committee system, multiple vacancies and large turnover rate as the most pressing problems. He also said he plans on uniting the organization with incomparable success.
“That is what I envision and what I hope to build: an SGA that works as one united, cohesive body with the discipline and coordination to keep all the wheels in motion at the same time,” Rose said.
Rose ticked off multiple general issues he planned to attack this year, including campus crime, food in the dining halls and including students in the decision-making process on the campus, which was a large portion of his campaign.
Rose’s speech was tamer than in previous years, where former presidents used their inauguration speeches to rip into the previous year’s administration.
Throughout much of the speech, Kraus sighed loudly and rolled his eyes at Rose’s proposals.
“A lot of the goals are lofty, but a lot of them are good ideas,” Kraus said. “I feel like he might find it difficult to reach some of those goals, but I have respect for the fact that he’s interested in pursuing them.”
Kraus gave advice to the incoming administration of the SGA in his final closing remarks as president, suggesting that they “bypass the city” and try to get things done at the county level.
“This city fails to respect students and it has been slow to encourage commercial development and create a true ‘college town’ environment,” Kraus said. “Our SGA has failed to recognize this … and next year’s administration can make great strides in this much more significant relationship that can produce much more tangible positive results.”
Kraus also took the opportunity to praise the organization, calling the SGA “undoubtedly one of the most active in this entire nation.”
“The political activism the SGA has demonstrated the last two years has had tangible results,” Kraus said, noting the $43 million increase to the University System of Maryland in the next fiscal year. “I have no doubt in my mind that without the last two College Park Student Government administrations, there would have been much less political and public pressure for this increase. Without the SGA, the issue of higher education funding would have been out of sight, out of mind.”
