This is an open letter to the 2019 SGA cabinet, from an active (and concerned) member of the Stevens campus.
Almost every Sunday evening last semester, and many the semester prior, anyone attending a meeting of the Stevens SGA senate could look towards the back of the room and see a dim yet constant red light staring at them from the top of a video camera. By the end of 2018, it would often be pointed directly at a high-fidelity microphone hoisted on a tripod placed right in front of the table the cabinet usually sat behind. Almost every week, I (and those who helped me) trucked all this equipment from the television studio in Humphreys down to Babbio to record the senate meetings for later viewing. These meetings were far from the most viewed or most cared about videos published by SITTV during the semester. I often was asked why I bothered sacrificing my Sunday nights doing something on my own accord that almost everyone else in the room dreaded. It took me a long time to come to a conclusive answer to that question, but I have it now.
When I was a freshman, I heard many stories about how the SGA did nothing and how senators just talk about how great they are during every meeting. I first saw the faces behind the names I’d heard during the 2017 Presidential Debate (which I assisted in filming as a member of SITTV), and during that debate there was obviously a lot of animosity in the student body towards the cabinet and senate. Events such as the proposed Resolution S-17S-006 in Spring of 2017 — which would have authorized senators to receive financial compensation for being senators, in addition to the other perks they get — and President Daly’s handling of the Gianforte Academic Center scandal led to near-universal distrust and dislike of the SGA in the minds of those undergraduate students who were paying attention.
A lot of that changed in 2018, however. President Lucas Gallo, whose election was by no means uncontested, assembled an all-star cabinet and a rush of new senators in the Spring of 2018 began to significantly change the nature of the SGA. When I started to regularly visit senate meetings in the Spring of 2018, I didn’t see a group of people who were conceited and inactive. Sure there were those who didn’t speak much (if at all), but week after week Gallo and the cabinet would mention a slew of real initiatives they were pursuing and many senators brought the same level of enthusiasm and drive.
That is why I sacrificed my Sunday nights to watch and record the meetings. I felt that every week I was watching the senate change before my eyes. The Budget Committee, formerly slandered for being an opaque tribunal within which the fates of student organizations were decided with little public awareness of how or why, began adding non-senators, and slowly became a more deliberative body where actual dialogue would occur and healthy disagreements would be argued out during committee meetings. Several new committees were formed to provide the senate with greater scope and authority to address real issues, including the Government and Community Relations Committee, the Ad Hoc Audit Committee, and the Ad Hoc Housing Committee. Although there were definitely times where the meetings were dry or lacked focus, at the end of every month I truly believed I was witnessing the school improve based on what I was seeing in the SGA. The Public Relations Committee, headed by Elina Tuder, worked tirelessly to overturn the perception of the SGA as a decadent body and I am happy to say that my records of each meeting contributed to that. This focus on actually doing something reached a peak late in the Fall 2018 semester when the Oversight Committee impeached five senators (one of which was later overturned) for dereliction of their senatorial duties. The 2018 SGA, led by the cabinet and many vocal, busy senators, finished as a well-oiled machine whose many mechanisms were (perhaps for the first time in recent memory) operating at full capacity and accomplishing many of the goals they set out to accomplish.
At some point, however, the machine began to show signs of stress. During the appointment sessions for the 2019 cabinet, many senators expressed clear frustration with the choices that then-President-elect Jason Chlus and then-Vice President of Operations-elect Ryan Tom had made. These senators had no clear alternative, however, and a minor debate erupted over whether there was even a point in bringing up individual misgivings. At one point, Tom even downplayed the role of senators in the appointment process. This feeling of discontent yet powerlessness inevitably leads to bitterness. Many senators resigned between the appointment sessions and now, and I would not be at all surprised if a primary reason for this was pessimism for the new cabinet and senatorial functions.
I am not a pessimist myself, though, and with no vested interest in the nuances of senatorial duties I was more than willing to give 2019’s SGA the benefit of the doubt. From my point of view, at least, as long as SITTV and The Stute get their needed budgets and the school moves in a vaguely positive direction I don’t really care about keeping up the perceived glamour of 2018. After all, while I certainly hold the 2018 cabinet and senate in high regard, they were by no means perfect.
Unfortunately, I am finding it increasingly difficult to remain optimistic. Every transition has its rough moments, and of course I would never expect the newcomers to be as on top of things as the outgoing cabinet was after a year on the job. However, I remember the initiation of the Gallo era as a time of collaborative excitement shared by a group of people who were looking forward to getting things done. With a few exceptions, I have not noticed the same level of cohesion and clarity of purpose from the Chlus age. The slate of senators who resigned is, I believe, the final epitaph of the canary in the SGA’s mine. It’s a warning for all those still within to get out while there’s still time, for there’s something invisible yet rotten in the mine.
My question is, what exactly are they mining for?
Since the beginning of 2019, my optimism in the continued velocity of the SGA has mostly vanished. 2019 is not going to be a repeat of 2018, and that has been made more and more apparent to me with every passing week. The inauguration was scheduled at a time inconsistent with the SGA’s governing documents, and even then was heavily delayed. The first senate meeting of the semester was plagued by indirection, large periods of time where no one was speaking and no business was being discussed, and a general sense of disarray that was shared with those I was sitting near. I was so disturbed by the contrast between the final meeting of 2018 and the first meeting of 2019 that shortly after the latter I resigned as producer of the senate meetings and no longer intend to attend any of them. This decision came after a year of walking back and forth between Humphreys and Babbio just to get the chance to witness the student body in action. I have seen no reassurances and have no reason to believe that the Chlus senate will retain even a fraction of the efficiency and effect of the Gallo senate.
I am not writing these words out of hatred, malice, or intent to slander. I believe that the cabinet and the senate can be mighty tools for change and positive growth on the Stevens campus, because I have witnessed both bodies excel in their duties. But I am worried. I, as an active member of this campus, am worried. I, as someone involved with several clubs and a fraternity on campus, am worried. I, as someone who watched good people last year get their reputations dragged through the mud for even being affiliated with the same organization that tried to pass S-17S-006, am worried.
So while I retire from active participation in Senate affairs, I offer those I am leaving behind a warning and a call to action. Do not let the mighty body you guide fall into decadence and disarray. Do not drag down the many bodies who sit before you every Sunday by inaction, incompetence, or malcontent. Do not carry with you the torch of electoral success only to use it to burn at the stake the velocity of achievement that precedes you.
I, as an optimist, fully believe that 2019 can be as good as or even a better year than 2018 for the SGA. However, I am worried that Chlus and some members of his administration do not fully understand how much they have to lose, and how hard they have to work to keep what they have. I do not wish to return to the days of general hatred for the SGA. I don’t wish to see tears in budget meetings again, and I definitely don’t want to feel compelled to return to the senate meetings with a camera in hand out of fear, rather than out of hope, as SITTV did in the Spring of 2017. Chlus, Tom, and the 2019 cabinet: Be prudent, be productive, be honest, be righteous, be self-sacrificing, and, most importantly, don’t be Tommy Daly.
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