The transparency of the Student Government Association (SGA) is as much the responsibility of The Shield as it is the SGA. I have no intention of maliciously attacking the SGA in this article. Rather, I want to point out concerns that I have as well as ones that I have heard in passing while conversing with students.

There were 9,808 students enrolled as of this spring here at the University of Southern Indiana. The Office of Research and Planning showed that only 896 responded to the SGA e-mail voting request. So only 9.15 percent of the student population voted.

How can the SGA accurately represent the campus when only 9 percent of the student body voted?

The answer, really, is it can’t.

I am a reporter at The Shield, but I’m also a student here on campus. Keeping that in mind, my daily activities hardly ever brought me upon a flyer or an individual running for SGA.

In order to adequately represent the student body you must be among them on a consistent basis in order to really know what their concerns are.

As I have interacted with various students, the general consensus is that no one really knows who SGA is and what they do. The burden must lie on them to adequately get their name out there and into the public forum.

There must be an increase in the visibility of the SGA members; walking around and conversing with students is essential.

Beyond that, the members must understand the idea of transparency. If they are to state they represent the student body then they need to embrace that or the platform they presume to run on is nothing more than smoke in the wind.

Their validity simply does not exist among the student population.

I encourage any member of the SGA or the president to respond to this article with their concerns. The well-being of the student body here at USI is as much the responsibility of the SGA as it is The Shield and we must work together to ensure the betterment across all facets of student life.