Dear Editor,
In reply to Kristy Smith’s letter to the editor, I feel compelled to offer up my view on the current opinions flying around campus.
First, don’t complain.
You said it yourself, you never vote.
Secondly, did you miss my long list of ideas or my web site that detailed my plan to help change SGA?
Did you ask the candidates what they stood for?
The candy is to encourage students to vote while serving as a way for creativity to be expressed.
The whole week posters were splattered all over the place and we attended several organizational meetings which is where and when you could have noticed ideas.
It seems the entire student body has been stirred up a little bit over the last few weeks.
It also seems that no one has any way to fix any problem that they complain about.
Who is here to represent the students? Who is here to connect the students with legislators and administration?
You are right, Kristy, the SGA is certainly not here for us.
If the SGA is supposed to be our voice, what has SGA become? It has turned into an organization devoted to its own interests. SGA senators come to the meetings, argue for six hours and feel productive.
SGA executive members attend the committee meetings they are required to attend, keep some peace at the overwhelmingly useless Senate meetings, and feel productive.
Then there are a few passionate members that waste countless hours developing some plan that can’t be accomplished and then write legislation that will never become enacted. Let’s not forget the resolutions that have no backbone or the futile arguments about constitutional changes that never get changed.
While the meetings last forever, nothing comes of them, except a sense of accomplishment from those who really have done nothing except waste their own time.
While the students gripe and complain about tuition, a few hard working members of University Productions, not SGA members, organize a protest against budget cuts. Only 250 students show up, while others claim the walkout has no teeth since the administration is behind it, not realizing this is not a protest against Stanton or any other administration member, rather against the legislators we fail to vote for and elect.
Do you realize the administration is on our side here? They despise cuts in education as much as we do. But do we vote? No. And so our voice is lost amid other small interest groups that have only the time to gripe and then move on.
Believe me, the legislators can’t hear us in the classrooms as we whimper on about how bad education has become. Believe me, the legislators don’t read the East Tennessean or any other college paper for that matter. The legislators read the polls and they know that only a small percent of voters turn out to cast their vote, while a majority of people complain and take no action.
I am sure some student will find the time to sit and write a reply to this that will contain a few passionate words and support the SGA, telling everyone that SGA does take action, that SGA does do this or that. Is it me, or has anyone noticed any changes this year that don’t go along with the usual utterance of time?
Of course something will change and of course something good will be done to appease a couple of “SGA does matter” believers.
Complain about propaganda and complain about some goofy candidate winning the election. Go on and complain about tuition hikes and budget cuts. Go on and tell everyone how little SGA accomplishes. Write back and tell me how great things are done, so you can feel better about your position in SGA. But, nothing will change until we take action.
Kristy, nothing will change until YOU take time to talk to the candidates and then take time to vote. Don’t sit back and watch.
I invite the entire student body to be part of the solution. I encourage all to rally behind the new SGA president by helping him with ideas, energy and solutions.
Be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem.
Nate Bailey

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