Following the Student Government Association's (SGA) narrow passage of a bill earlier this month which called for the creation of a new vice president of equity and diversity to sit on its executive board, Executive President Pedro Khoury said "I feel that we still need more conversation as we move from presenting the bill from the SGA to the entire student body."
Judging from last week's information session on the fledgling position, attended by exactly zero students, SGA has failed to achieve this goal.
And, though at the time this editorial is being written the polls have not yet opened to the student body - charged with the task of giving the final nod to this position - the Signal is prepared to make a prediction on its outcome.
The bill will pass. But it will not pass due to overwhelming student support. It will pass because students who would likely find themselves coming to the reasoned conclusion that the position is both unnecessary and as yet, very ill-defined, will remain completely unaware of what SGA is doing in their name. Meanwhile, the organizations who pushed for SGA's passage of the legislature, ultimately a minority of the student body, will come out to the polls en masse.
While, certainly, apathy reigns supreme at the College, this does not give SGA the excuse to do what it sees fit while only paying lip service to the notion of the Democratic process.
SGA must realize that the student body whether they like it or not, is the body they are charged to represent. And if students do not take the responsibility to inform themselves, then perhaps SGA has to meet them a little more than halfway instead of rushing headlong into referendum.
