Savannah Sima
Contributing Writer
On Saturday, Nov. 23, the Student Government Association (SGA) held a panel at 6 p.m. to discuss the differences between SGA and Campus Council (CC). Many students have expressed that they don’t understand the distinction between what the two bodies do, so this panel was explicitly held to clarify their functions. The panel included Annays Yacamán ’22, vice chair of CC, J. Mathew Mayes ’20, at-large representative for CC, Halen Gifford ’21, chair of CC, Emilee McCubbins ’20, president of SGA, Grace O’Leary ’20, SGA chair of Student Services and Marco Roccato ’20, SGA at-large senator. Around 20 others attended the panel, but attendees were mostly additional SGA or CC members.
McCubbins explained why this event occurred, stating, “About a month ago at a CC meeting, we had several people — who were not members of CC and SGA — bring up that they didn’t understand the differences between these two bodies and specifically asked for us to have an event to clear the air about who we are. They specifically asked that we do something interactive, similar to the game show played at first-year orientation, so we did half panel, half game to make sure we’re doing what we need to do.”
Gifford added, “We get a lot of comments, [and] people bringing concerns to [either SGA and CC] that we can’t really address … so it was partially created to explain the differences but also explain the powers CC has because people tend to think we can either do everything or we can’t do anything — we’re somewhere in the middle.”
The primary function of the SGA on campus was explained by McCubbins.
“[SGA] is primarily advocacy based, so basically anything happening on campus that can be advocated for is in our wheelhouse,” she said. “We have a food representative, folks that talk to people in the Wellness Center and more representatives like that. Basically, if we see a need that isn’t currently being met, we try to meet it. In that same vein, we provide many different services for students like ScotLends as well as the airport shuttles.”
Gifford elaborated on the primary jobs of CC.
“CC has a limited scope but quite a bit of power, the biggest being policy making. I don’t mean every single rule made on campus,” she clarified, “but I mean specifically regarding student organizations and the Scot’s Key. We work with the budgets and the charters of all student organizations and is made of administration, staff, faculty and students.”
SGA’s public relations committee and CC’s outreach committee are similar, but the rest differ significantly. SGA’s other standing committees include advocacy, outreach & diversity and student services while CC has charter, memorandum, budget and election. This year, SGA and CC have created a joint oversight task force, headed by Mayes and SGA Treasurer Isaac Weiss ’20. Mayes explained, “The primary purpose of the task force is to take a broad view of student government at Wooster and see if there needs to be any changes or see if there needs to be any [more] accountability for our student governments.”
SGA and CC do work together as both groups are able to help point students in the right direction if they are confused about which group is equipped to help.
McCubbins explained, “At every SGA and CC meeting we have a representative [from the other organization] give an update, so each body knows what is going on with the other one,” Gifford said. “This is important because [CC] is focused on policymaking, so it is hard to know the larger issues facing students as a whole.”
Panel members also detailed why they ran for their respective positions, and encouraged others to do the same. “I got to the point as a junior where I felt I was connected on campus with a variety of groups of students and people from all different areas of campus life,” Roccato said. “Having worked for Admissions and Residence Life, I felt like I had a good understanding of some of the problems that were out there and some of the ways I could try to help.”
Yacamán added, “I struggled to decide whether I wanted to run for SGA or CC. Ultimately, I knew coming into college I wanted to be involved in student government because in high school I was involved my senior year where I worked on policy issues so I found it interesting to make policy based on what’s missing on campus which is most fulfilling for me.”
Being on both bodies has added a host of accomplishments that both bodies are proud of. CC cited improving the attendance policies, clarifying impeachment clauses, clearing up budget guidelines, holding events regarding campus safety and turning increased feedback from students into policy. SGA points to critically looking at the structural failures of SGA, improving retention, opening ScotLends and magnifying the international student perspective.
During the event, there was time for questions from the audience. One student posed the issue of making the College a smoke-free campus and why the two bodies are not making any progress. Members of SGA and CC explained that the topic was brought up in their respective meetings but have found there is both a lot of support and a lot of pushback which makes it hard to create a policy since it requires more of a consensus. Gifford and McCubbins reiterated that if things seem to stall, they will keep pushing the issue to pass the message along to the President, which will have a higher probability of getting attention. The rest of the time was spent playing Kahoot, a game where people compete to answer multiple choice questions the fastest — in this case, questions specific to SGA and CC. The top five non-student government scorers won a prize.
When asked if they were happy about the turnout to the event, McCubbins and Gifford simultaneously responded, “No.”
“Of the people who specifically asked for this event, none of them showed up. Outside of people who are on either body, we only had like eight people show up. As integral as these two organizations are to the campus community, it would’ve been nicer to see a larger turnout.,” McCubbins said.
Gifford continued, stating, “We’re always willing to have an event; anytime someone asks to have a conversation or have a panel, especially an interactive event that isn’t an email being sent out, is a great way to interact with our constituency, but it’s always hard to get people to come.”