By: KATE LUCE
Staff Writer
katelucellc@gmail.com
With the recent decline of membership, IU South Bend’s Student Government Association (SGA) is looking for more students to participate as senators and cabinet members.
“It’s an excellent chance to delve into the world of government on a smaller scale so you can get a taste of what it’s like in the political world before you leave college. Students in SGA are given many responsibilities that affect other students, and it makes you feel more connected to the student body as a whole,” Taylor Jump, sophomore senator, said.
So far, the SGA only has a dozen members representing the nearly 8,000 students that attend IUSB. The push for more students comes to the foreground after several seniors graduated and members left SGA. After all, the more students that are involved, the more perspectives would come into light in their discussions and decisions that impact the student body.
“We are looking for members to return us to our desired number of twelve senators to provide more perspective during the course of our meetings. Any person should feel free to apply. We are committed to diversity, as we believe that deep-level diversity creates better decisions,” Kevin Schascheck, vice president, said.
In addition to the push to fill these positions, the newly written constitution also creates a “student ambassador” position. Two ambassadors, chosen by the dean, come from each college at IUSB, and one is a freshman student. The position, however, only lasts one semester.
The goal of this new amendment is to expose more students at IUSB to roles SGA plays on this campus and to have more student participation in the organization. If all goes as planned, SGA will be tripling its numbers with the addition of student ambassadors.
Although a freshman cannot be a part of the senate, they are equally able to become student ambassadors for their colleges. In fact, the push for freshmen to play a role in SGA came into discussion numerous times when writing the new constitution.
“[Interested students] have to be at least one semester in. The requirements do not really comply with making it easy. Sometimes policies have a disparate impact, not necessarily have the intent to do that,” Shail Bhagat, SGA president, said.
Although passing the new constitution is the priority of SGA for now, the fact of the matter is that once it is passed, the issue of getting the word of the organization out there will come into the foreground to their discussions.
Luckily for the group, the future of marketing and more enrollment is currently in the works.
“What we are currently doing, now we have the search and screen committee that is looking for applications. We are having a lot of people applying for senate. Once we pass the constitution, we are also going to have a marketing campaign. We are possibly going to be getting help from the Marketing and Advising Club and other professors that are really invested in how we can push this message forward,” Bhagat said.
The impact of this organization reaches far and wide on campus. It is a hefty weight to bear on the students who are a part of the group currently, but with the hope for new members, SGA is hoping for a better future for IUSB’s student body.
If you are interested in joining, get in touch with SGA by searching for a senate application on titanatlas.iusb.edu/organization/SGA. The organization is currently accepting applications and recommends that interested students take the time to join.
