The Student Government Association is one of the largest advocates for student interests on campus, but sometimes finding students to serve in the organization can be a challenge.

According to its mission statement, SGA is dedicated to inspiring improvement throughout the community by providing and promoting advocacy among and for CMU students.

President Marie Reimers said SGA’s influence stretches from smaller things, like installing pencil sharpeners, to significant decisions on the academic calendar and CMU’s operating budget.

However, though it serves such an important purpose on campus, the most recent SGA elections were far from competitive.

CMU’s SGA is the largest in Michigan, boasting one House representative from each registered student organization on campus. However, interest in serving in the Senate is not as great – and no one is entirely sure why.

Meeting Monday for an “emergency election,” SGA only managed to find five candidates to fill eight vacant positions.

Reimers said spring elections typically solicit less interest, but when she originally joined SGA, only 13 of the 24 positions were filled – hardly enough for a quorum.

Besides the lack of interest, SGA has also been struggling to ensure all colleges have a voice on the Senate.

With House seats representing RSOs, Senate seats are delegated by one Senate leader to represent each college on campus – including a seat for graduate students and undecided majors.

There’s a problem with the philosophy as it stands.

The majority of SGA Senate seats have traditionally been filled by students in the College of Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences – the same college that incorporates the political science department.

With the majority of the SGA membership only belonging to CHSBS, it’s unreasonable to believe that Senate members can successfully represent a college that they are largely unfamiliar with.

Rather than delegating a college arbitrarily to an unrelated student, SGA should work harder to draw representation from each college.

For instance, only a College of Communication and Fine Arts student should be able to represent the CCFA. Only under the most dire situations should the SGA delegate a student to represent a college that they are unfamiliar with.

It’s their responsibility to reach out and find students from all areas of campus.

SGA bylaws that call for Senate-college delegation are unfair, not only for the representatives, but to the college that is being represented – and Reimers agrees.

Necessary reform is on the way.

Although changing SGA bylaws is an involved process that takes some commitment and patience – Reimers and SGA Vice President Patrick O’Connor are willing to take that step.

In an interview with Central Michigan Life, Reimers said she hopes to soon introduce an amendment that would require interested students to only run for seats that are related to their particular course of study.

By “covering all their bases,” Reimers said she hopes the amendment will increase the competitiveness for these seats, bring in more interested candidates and ultimately offer better representation for each area of campus.

Reimers said she hopes to have the reform in place by the end of the semester.

This is the next step in making SGA more effective and better represented on campus. By delegating college-specific seats to students who have a vested interest in the college, hopefully SGA will begin to make more of an impact.

Time will only tell if the change in direction will again encourage students to get involved with their student government, their university and the needs of the student body – but the bylaw amendment is an important first step.

It’s now up to students to take the time to get involved, make a difference and represent the voice of the students.

We encourage you to do just that.