Since 1923 • For a greater Loyola

The Maroon

Since 1923 • For a greater Loyola

The Maroon

Since 1923 • For a greater Loyola

The Maroon

    Wanted: fearless student leaders

    The Crystal Ball
    The Crystal Ball

    Student government elections have arrived and it’s time to choose a candidate.

    What Loyola needs now is a student government president and vice president who will not be steam-rolled by the strong hands of administrators.

    The current SGA leadership has achieved many good things for Loyola, including student forums, which allow regular students to voice concerns about campus issues to their elected leaders.

    They’ve also done a terrific job in informing students about the controversial plus-minus system and polling university opinion.

    Mainstays like Wolves on the Prowl and Homecoming went off without a hitch and new SGA-sponsored services like The Prowler seem to be successful.

    These accomplishments can be chalked up to the hours that student representatives dedicate of their own time in working to make Loyola a better place.

    And while all of this is praise-worthy, what hasn’t changed much from past student government administrations is the cozy relationship student leaders have with the people who make the real decisions around Loyola — the university administration.

    Our leaders need to find a way to make the voices of the students a force to be reckoned with. University administrators have an easy time appeasing student calls for reasonable tuition prices and scholarships for athletes.

    They place a member of SGA on a board or committee, and that’s supposed to suffice.

    This is not acceptable.

    After all, we pay their salaries.

    If Loyola is to move ahead, we need fearless student leaders who won’t endure administrators’ patronizing treatment of student opinion.

    The students are not simply an obstacle to their long-term goal of improving Loyola.

    If Loyola is to change in any way, the change will start with the students.

    The students are the very reason administrators have jobs and our SGA representatives shouldn’t let them forget it.

    All too often SGA members are seen on the porch of the Danna Center currying favor with university leaders.

    Sure, SGA leaders must have good working relationships with university officials in order to get things done, but the student government officers should not allow administrators to use those relationships as tools for manipulation.

    Plenty of our student leaders have gone on to top-notch law firms and elected positions in New Orleans and beyond, and many have used student government as a training ground for those careers. Don’t let politics interfere with improving Loyola. University administrators will respect the student leaders all the more when SGA is willing to confront them and challenge authority.

    Loyola’s student government has the potential to be a pungent force on campus.

    SGA’s new administration needs to remember this and not back down.

    Compromise can be useful sometimes, but when employed all the time, it becomes a symptom of selling out.

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