The Cabinet and the Senate of the SGA are best viewed as two separate entities. While the Senate typically handles legislative and committee functions, the Cabinet usually handles executive and outreach matters. At face value, it is not supposed to be this way. The Senate and Cabinet are, in theory at least, supposed to work collaboratively as equal parts of the same whole. Such a working relationship is implied by the legislative power of the Senate that supplements the executive power of the Cabinet. Moreover, the role as a representative of the students that a Senator is instilled with naturally makes the Senate an advisory body to the Cabinet.
Even though the President is the official representative of the student body, as spelled out in the Constitution, their legal power is quite limited. Legislation is almost exclusively the domain of the Senate. The only Constitutional power the President possesses to counteract the wishes of the Senate is the power of veto; although, this is very rarely used. In this system, the President of the SGA can be viewed as first among equals. Despite such an implied relationship, the Senate and Cabinet are often not on the same page.
Senators are not given the same access to the administration are Cabinet members. Usually, when an enterprising Senator wants to tackle an initiative that requires reaching out to the administration, they first must go through a designated Cabinet member. The reasoning behind this extra hurdle is that the administration is much more accustomed to working with Cabinet members and are not as receptive to Senators, so they prefer everything to first filter through the Cabinet.
Furthermore, the Cabinet is often given classified information from the administration, including the Board of Trustees, that they cannot share with the Senate. Consequently, gaping disparities form between the goals and plans of the Cabinet and those of the Senate because of this unequal access. All this administrative dissonance is exacerbated by the role of Committee Heads.
Ideally, Committee Heads are there to streamline initiatives that fall under the same scope. For instance, those concerning bias and marginalization fall under the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, whereas those concerning facilities or dormitories fall under Campus Wellness. While this does simplify the process, it does not correct the fact that Committee Heads are still Senators, so they still are not given the same access as Cabinet members. Additionally, this means that a Senator could have to first go through their Committee Head and then a designated Cabinet member before finally reaching an administrator.
On top of everything, the Cabinet and Senate are further divided by separate Cabinet meetings and Committee Head meetings occurring simultaneously. On the surface, it looks like a gathering of Cabinet members is trying to accomplish the same thing as a gathering of Committee Heads—inclusive discussions about university affairs. This begs the question of why two separate meetings must occur, especially when one side is not given the same vital access as the other to make informed decisions? Granted, the Committee Head meetings are chaired by the Vice President of Operations, but this does not solve all the issues.
The role of Vice President of Operations is over saturated with responsibility. In theory, they are supposed to supervise the ad-hoc committees and Committee Heads, but often committees that do not fall squarely in line with other Cabinet members get lumped together with the VPO. Consequently, committees that have no relation to each other are bundled together under one Cabinet member. When the SGA was much smaller, it seemed more realistic for the VPO to have this responsibility, but as the SGA has expanded, this became even more burdensome. Going forward, the disparity between the Cabinet and Senate needs to be addressed. If they continue to operate as two separate worlds, then disagreements will pop up. They need to be viewed as equal parts of the same whole. At the very least, Committee Heads should be put on equal footing with Cabinet members. Resolving these inefficiencies will allow the SGA to function more smoothly as well as garner a reputation for being a robust and effective student government.
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