Staff Ed: SGA is reaching out to the college community

November 5th, 2009 | By Staff | Section: Opinion

Institutional transparency matters to the Grinnell community. Time and time again, students find themselves wondering not only how institutional decisions are made, but WHO the hell is making them.

We would like to give a hats-off to this year’s Student Government Association (SGA) cabinet for being available, open and for their ever-increasing efforts for transparency. In years past, SGA has maintained an active role on campus, but not one nearly so open and encouraging to input.

We’ve seen improvements in these matters this year in the form of the proposed reforms to the College Hearing Board and the Judicial Council, which support SGA’s attempt to have public records documented for student knowledge. SGA has worked in cooperation with the SRC and Student Affairs on the Bias-Motivated Incident Response Policy. Students have been well informed of the steps in any policy, in the form of the cabinet’s frequent all-campus e-mails, and willingness to speak to the S&B on any and every issue.

Even at the micro level, SGA makes themselves available for the campus at large. Any student that wants to meet with a cabinet member for any reason has time to do so, as SGA has made their cabinet’s office hours readily available to students, notably in the form of a whiteboard visibly located in the JRC.

Good job SGA. You’ve done the right thing.