Students Sound Off To SGA
In August, the Student Government Association began listening to students in a new way. They launched Sound Off, a blog where SGA members post bills that will be discussed in Senate, information on upcoming events and questions about possible policy changes. Students are encouraged to comment on the posts and give their opinions.
Annah Grace Barclift, SGA vice president, said Sound Off is about keeping open lines of communication between the SGA and the students it serves.
“The main purpose is to relay information the average student may not know,” said Barclift.
Bills that will be discussed in the weekly Senate meeting on Mondays are posted on the Web site on Sunday. This allows time for students to comment on the bill and give their opinion to their senator. Before Sound Off, students did not know the bills until the Monday meeting.
Barclift believes any feedback from students is useful to senators.
“Even negative feedback is encouragement,” she said.
Among those that are allowed to post are executive officers, committee heads and cabinet secretaries. Cabinet secretaries post about the philanthropic and entertainment events hosted by the 79 member body.
The site originated as an offshoot of Barclift’s campaign platform. She campaigned with the promise that she would be open to students’ comments through the placement of a suggestion box in the SGA office. Discouraged to find the suggestion box continually empty, she decided to take the opportunity for comments to the Internet.
“I wanted to make it easier to have a means for feedback,” she said. “I believe in this thing.”
Since the site’s launch, students have responded to posts about the length of fall break, the probationary charter for a pro-life organization and campus parking issues. While the topics are ones that could easily evoke negative responses, Barclift said most students’ comments have been constructive. The comments on the site are not moderated.
SGA members attending committee meetings review the comments each week and decide on a course of action to address them. Things are already getting accomplished. An emergency pole was repaired after a student posted a comment alerting SGA to an outage.
Barclift said although the response by the students has been slow, she believes the site will become an integral part of SGA operations. According to Barclift, acceptance amongst senators is developing.
“Awareness is growing,” she said. “The senators post and check it more frequently than they have in the past.”
Barclift said the blog is merely a complement to the other ways in which the SGA addresses students’ concerns.
“This in no way takes the place of any forum,” said Barclift.
Open forums have long been the chosen means of addressing concerns. SGA has already hosted multiple forums this year including Tiger Feedback, an annual forum that allows students to ask questions to university administrators and staff.
Because the blog is a new medium, Barclift said there were a few “kinks” that had to be fixed before students saw the site. The SGA waited several months to announce its presence to the students, so they could familiarize themselves with the Wordpress software that runs the blog.
“We waited a while,” she said. “We wanted to get our feet wet.”
They began publicizing the site last Monday. Sound Off was announced in the Campus Connection and featured in The Auburn Plainsman. SGA members also made it the subject of a Facebook group.
Sound Off will hold SGA members to a higher accountability, but Barclift doesn’t foresee this as a problem.
“We’re not afraid to admit our mistakes and put information out there,” she said.
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