Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:45:43 -0400
Sender: All Students archnewsstudents@listserv.uga.edu
From: Official UGA Announcements archnews@uga.edu
Subject: Student nominations for Athletic Board and Commencement speaker
To: ARCHNEWSSTUDENTS@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU archnews@uga.edu archnewsstudents@listserv.uga.edu

TO: UGA Students

FROM: Student Government Association

SUBJECT: Nominations for Athletic Board and Commencement speaker

The UGA Athletic Association Board of Directors (which is chaired by President Michael F. Adams and receives reports from Athletic Director Damon Evans) is asking for a student to sit as a board member for the 2008-2009 academic year. If you are interested in applying for this position, please visit the Student Government Association website at www.uga.edu/sga for guidelines and more information.

GRADUATING SENIORS: Applications to be the Spring 2008 Commencement speaker are now available. Please visit the Student Government Association website at www.uga.edu/sga for a copy of the application.

Best,
Connor McCarthy and Nicki Batelli

President and Vice President
Student Government Association

Note this email was sent today, Thursday, March 20th at 9:45 pm.

Now, read this email that new SGA President Connor McCarthy sent out over the a private email list (the Foundation Fellowship only email list):

From: “REDACTED” redacted@uga.edu
To: fellowsonly@REDACTED.com
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:23:38 -0400
Subject: [fellowsonly] Commencement Speaker and Athletic Association Board of Directors Applications redacted@uga.edu

From Connor McCarthy.

—–

Hey guys,

Soon you will hopefully be receiving something about the Commencement speaker and the student representative to the Athletic Association Board of Directors. I wanted to give you a head start and an actual copy of the application so you don’t have to visit the Student Government Association webpage (which I’m certain you do on a regular basis).

Attached are the applications and below is a small blurb that I expect to go over the Arch listserv soon.

The UGA Athletic Association Board of Directors (which is chaired by President Michael Adams and receives reports from Athletic Director Damon Evans) is asking for a student to sit as a Board member for the 2008-2009 academic year. If you are interested in applying for this position, please visit the Student Government Association website at www.uga.edu/sga for guidelines and more information.

GRADUATING SENIORS: Applications to be the Spring 2008 Commencement speaker are now available. Please visit the Student Government Association website at www.uga.edu/sga for a copy of the application.

Holla back,
Connor

This email was sent yesterday, Wednesday, March 19th at 4:23pm. The Foundation Fellowship is UGA’s top scholarship program. It is rather exclusive, and McCarthy recently was awarded mid-term Foundation Fellowship.

Seriously? “Soon you will hopefully be receiving something about the Commencement speaker and the student representative to the Athletic Association Board of Directors. I wanted to give you a head start and an actual copy of the application so you don’t have to visit the Student Government Association webpage (which I’m certain you do on a regular basis).”

Come on. McCarthy is going to do something nice for his scholarship friends and give them a heads up before the rest of the student body gets this. Hello, ethics? He gave the Foundation Fellows an UNFAIR heads up and an UNFAIR head start with these applications for positions that represent the student body (all members of the student body, Connor).

McCarthy went out of his way to do this. He had to contact someone with access to the Fellows Only email list to get that person to post this on the list. He meant to give Foundation Fellows early access. He admitted it in the email and he went out of his way to make sure they got the applications in an easy manner.

Mr. President, this is not the way to start off your new administration. Do ALL students a favor and don’t play favorites among any group of students. There are real problems with this action and it is sad to see the ethical problems with SGA shine through so early in your administration.

Connor attached both applications, the commencement speaker application and the Athletic Assocation Board of Directors, which I am including here as pdfs for ALL students (McCarthy didn’t attach these to the email to the student body) to download without having to visit the SGA website.

I have quite a few comments about her opinions, so I am going to post my responses line by line.

Creating change in a community of 34,959 students is no easy task, but it is the job of the Student Government Association to work every day towards the ideal university setting here in Athens.

Come on, “work every day towards the ideal university setting”??? How about representing students? Isn’t that what you are elected to do?

This past semester, SGA successfully advocated on behalf of students to achieve many significant improvements in campus life.

Funny.

Sometimes we, myself in particular, get so excited a change is occurring that we forget to tell everyone what role we played in the initiative.

Ha, does any one actually believe that? SGA touts everything to make themselves look important, including the accomplishments of other people and organizations.

Here are things the Student Government Association successfully advocated for last year.

As you may have noticed, beginning this fall, the University no longer will utilize Social Security numbers in the classroom due to the security risks that distribution of this sensitive information posed to students.

Now that you fixed the little problem with Social Security numbers, why don’t you fix the big problem where people might actually have their important information stolen? This is where the problem is SGA, when you have to sign on to OASIS using your Social Security number.

The Collegiate Readership Program, first implemented last fall, continues to provide national and local newspapers to all University students on a daily basis.

Make sure you tout this one some more, Ms. Bowers, since you predecessor put this program in place and you have done nothing for the program.

In order to place student safety above punitive measures in all aspects of University life, the Responsible Action Policy was implemented in May to ensure students seek medical attention for their peers without hesitation.

Umm, excuse me, when did this happen? Why haven’t you told students? This should have been a major score for students, and yet it is buried in your list of accomplishments. And why don’t you explain this policy some more. Do underagers who call for medical attention for others get no punishment, or is it the one in need of medical attention gets no punishment? You need to explain this, and then get out and tell every person on campus, so something like this doesn’t happen again.

We have advocated successfully for increased wireless access in classrooms – which can be utilized to learn about the distribution of grades in University courses by viewing the Key, which has been compiled by SGA and posted on our Web site.

Now, you say you’ve “advocated successfully for increased wireless access in classrooms”, can you tell me which classrooms have increased wireless access? I would like to know, because otherwise I don’t believe you.

As for the issue of The Key, I know you read this last week.

In a few weeks, the University will launch Ruckus, a legal media downloading program that will be accessible to all University students, free of charge.

Damn you people. Do you not know that anyone with an EDU email address can access for free anyways? Yeah, you can. So is UGA paying for this? I would hate for them to pay for something that is free for all college students already. I know this is Rodney Bennett’s pet project, but maybe someone needs to take a broader look and see if UGA should really sign an agreement with Ruckus dealing with a service that is already free to students.

We also have launched a Web site ourselves called GeorgiaStudentOpinion.com to connect all of the colleges and universities in the state.

When issues regarding HOPE scholarship, tuition and textbook prices are raised during future legislative sessions, we will be able to respond quickly in a unified manner.

Ummm, yeah, your site doesn’t really work. It requires a password to get in. Strangely enough, the username and password combination to get into the site is sga and sga. Let me tell you a little something about web lingo. When you say you launch a website, usually that means it is available to be of use to someone. But apparently nothing SGA does is of use to anyone.

With those tasks off our list, SGA still has a busy fall ahead of us. Issues on our agenda include:

• Opening the Student Learning Center 24 hours a day – which polls show is overwhelmingly supported by students – around 80 percent for those of you who like numbers.

Thank you. Any chance you can work on getting the libraries open 24/7 as well?

• Providing art classes for non-majors so all students have an opportunity to get a well-rounded education at the University.

Has anybody actually told SGA that they would like for this to happen? Just curious if this was a personal goal.

• Improving the advising process at orientation so freshmen will have the best possible start to their academic careers.

Ha, like this will actually happen.

• Posting the faculty evaluations each student completes at the end of a course online.

Won’t ever happen.

• Drafting and passing the Commitment to Academic Excellence – an agreement between students and faculty ensuring respect in the classroom is a two-way street.

What the heck is this? “Ensuring respect is a two-way street”? Some explanation please.

• Creating an interactive calendar for all student organizations, thereby making it easier to get plugged in on campus.

Oh cool! Like, we could put all the Greek events on this one calendar, and then like, we could all go to each others’ parties. Like, totally great idea.

• Expanding the on-campus venues that accept Bulldog Bucks (especially Sanford Stadium and Parking Services) and many other projects that will benefit the academic, social and cultural welfare of students here at the University.

“Many other projects that will benefit the academic, social and cultural welfare of students”. Excuse me, I just choked on my milk.

Please let us know what you think of these initiatives, what your issues are and anything on this campus that could be tweaked in order to make your stay in Athens the best time of your life.

We can’t cancel classes on Friday or change the drinking age to 18, but please let us know if you ever need anything else.

Ya know, if this are the kinda projects that students want you to work on, shouldn’t you be so inclined? I mean, you are elected to accomplish student goals. No classes on Friday!

To learn more about the issues above and others, please visit www.uga.edu/sga or join us on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. in SLC room 101.

Feel free to contact Student Government Association anytime, through e-mail at www.ugasga@uga.edu or me personally at KABowers@uga.edu or by swinging by our office in Tate 169.

Remember, we’re here working for you. Make sure to let us know how you think we are doing.

- Kathryn Bowers is the president of SGA.

It is funny, usually these articles are penned by both the President and Vice President of SGA.

The University Council webpage lists Vice President, Student Government Association as “Pending Replacement” (image above) and Ms. Gibbons’ name tag has been removed from outside the SGA office.

Hatin’ SGA will have further coverage on this breaking news.

As such, the editor of the Ruddle Report, Paul Ruddle, has made available an Excel file with the 1999 through 2006 Key data.

If you would like to see the older HTML version of The Key (1999 through 2005), the Black Tie Party has made it available here.

The question here is that the SGA Constitution requires 10% of the students to vote in a “special election” for the SGA Constitution, before the Constitution can be approved.

So, how many students voted in the election? Well, it depends what the definition of “special election” is, Mr. Clinton.
Here are the official results of the SGA Election (referendums only):

To me, the SGA Constitution did not pass. Only 2,888 students voted, below the needed 10%. This is more like 8%.
But SGA officials contend that 3,662 students total voted ANYWHERE on the ballot, and thus, the Constitution was approved (and 3,662 is just barely 10%). Some students, it seems, voted only for candidates (probably their friends, brothers, or sisters) and didn’t bother to vote on any of the referendums.

Who knows if this is true? Only the SGA and the UGA administration, it seems. Both are refusing to supply the election results and final vote tallies to anyone who asks. The SGA website says the following:

***More accurate statistical information will soon be available. [see here]

I think this is completely wrong, and I encourage students to act. Do not let narrow-minded SGA officials try and squeeze through approval of their precious Constitution.

Click here to send an email to all members of the Elections Committee, and tell them you disagree with the new SGA Constitution being approved.

See it? Right there beneath the ‘amendment or issue’ box, there is a link to ugasga.org with the text “To view the SGA Constitution or other SGA information, click here to visit ugasga.org.”

Curious students click on the link, and it takes them to SGA’s homepage. And on SGA’s homepage… a desperate plea for you to vote to continue SGA.

This one is simple. We want you to make sure you vote “YES” to keep SGA working for you.

This is rather improper. Someone decided to add this link to the ballot, and it links to an SGA homepage where the SGA Prex and VP beg you to vote in their favor.

It is completely unethical that while you are voting, someone (SGA) tells you how to vote.

That, and there isn’t even a link to the new SGA Constitution on the page. It is buried in the news section, where you have to click 3 additional links to get to it and download it (in Word format, which students might not have access to).

This is a serious problem for the SGA Election, and it completely compromises the election’s integrity.

SGA is hosting a “Rock the Vote” campaign from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today and Thursday in Tate Plaza. Local musicians Atticus Hicks and Allison Weiss will play.

This event is an SGA run event, and as such, shouldn’t be associated with the SOS Party.

But, like usual, it seems there is a little behind-the-scenes, insider action going on.

Allison Weiss, one of the musicians performing at the “Rock the Vote”, works for the SOS Party. She is their webmaster. Nothing like a little free exposure, and maybe some album sales, for working for the SGA insiders.

You judge for youself, but this reeks of cronyism.

*Update*

To make this look even more like cronyism, Allison Weiss made a Facebook event for the “Rock the Vote” Rally (which is tomorrow, R&B wrong again). And under the description:

I’ll have CDs and shit for sale so hell yeah for that.

Crony-what?

More like conniving students into believing lies:

Without SGA this year…
- There’d be no online Key

Dead wrong!

The Black Tie Party saved the Key. The Key is not just this year’s copy of the grade records, it is all of the ones from the past. That is why it means so much to students! So we can look at all those records and see a professor’s grading records. And SGA didn’t nothing to save those. It was the effort of Noah Mink to save those pages because if he had not had the forethought, all those records would be gone for eternity. Look for yourself, as the SGA website even links to the Black Tie Party page with the Key records.

SGA hasn’t even put the fall semester grades up!

- The parking on the IM Fields might have gone unchallenged

Wrong!

It was members of the Intramural teams that brought this issue up at Open Mic with Mike. They challenged! You helped, but if SGA wasn’t around, they still would have challenged. Your statement is false!

- Efforts for a student bill of rights and a medical amnesty policy would be non-existent

True, but…

You haven’t gotten a student bill of rights or a medical amnesty policy approved! These terms sound nice, but until they are codified and put into action, they are merely placeholders in SGA’s book of achievements!

- We’d have no Fall Break

True, but…

SGA let our Fall Break get cut. Fall Break got cut in half. SGA saved half of Fall Break. Thanks, guys.

This year saw the budget process overhauled

True, but…

New rules don’t work if they aren’t enforced. There was an SGA event this week (!!!) that didn’t meet the new SGA budget regulations and it was allowed to continue!

and the election process reformed

True, but…

It apparently didn’t work that well, because students have NO CHOICE in their representation this year!

Lastly…

To increase accessability, office hours for senators and appointed positions were increased

But… WRONG!

Office hours were not increased. Even if they were, where do you find your Senator’s office hours? Where is the SGA handbook on how to find your representatives? And why don’t your representatives, who want your vote soo badly that they make Facebook groups and events, come search out their constituents?

If you want our votes, represent us! Talk to us! Come search us out, make yourself known, don’t sit in an office in the basement of Tate doing your homework during your “office hours” and tell us SGA deserves a chance. No, you do none of this. You are the ones that are causing our representation to crumble more and more every day.

The Red and Black calls yesterday’s multiple screw-ups “a reporter’s error.” Even if this was the fault of the reporter, it would still be interesting to see who in SGA gave this faulty information to the reporter.

The Red and Black also explains that even the headline printed yesterday (”SGA on the line, Feb. election to determine its future”) was wrong, because the elections will be held January 24th to 26th.

A letter to the editor, written by your’s truly, about the errors was printed on the Opinion’s page.

Yesterday’s article, “SGA on the line, Feb. election to determine its future,” is completely inaccurate.

I am extremely disappointed that Carolyn Crist did not bother to check the facts in the story, probably given to her by some SGA lackey.

Her article states that it would take 16,500 students voting against SGA to kick SGA off campus.

In fact, it would take two-thirds of the students voting, not two-thirds of the entire student body.

Even the first sentence of the article is incorrect; this is not the first time since 1985 that SGA could be abolished, as SGA has been abolished before.

This vote, on whether or not to disband SGA, has taken place every four years since 1987.

These blunders make it seem as if it is extremely difficult to get rid of SGA, and will cause some students to think their vote will not matter.

Everyone should remember that, while not simple, SGA can be kicked off campus.

The resolution automatically appears on the ballot every four years and requires a passing vote from two-thirds of the student body.

It’s easier said than done. The vote alone would take 16,590 students, and only about 4,000 students voted in last year’s election – a one-third decrease from the previous year.

But, this is incorrect. The SGA Constitution reads:

If more than two-thirds of the voting disagree, the Student Government Association shall be abolished. The first four-year period began Spring Quarter of 1987.

Now, bad writing aside, SGA is to be abolished if two-thirds of the students who vote in the SGA election vote ‘no’. If so, there is no specific number of votes needed to kick SGA off campus, as it depends on how many participate in the election.

The article also makes it seem as if approving the new SGA Constitution also requires a two-thirds vote of the entire student body, which is also untrue.

Even the first sentence of the article was dead wrong:

For the first time since 1985, the Student Government Association could be abolished, but SGA officials said they are not worried.

Wrong. Every four years this vote takes place, so every four years SGA could be abolished.

There is also a quote with little backing (if any):

“Most critics of SGA don’t want to completely abolish it but want to change the current structure and representation,” said Ed Mirecki, associate director for student affairs. [Editor's note: Ed Mirecki is also the faculty adviser to the SGA]

Which critics are these? Speak up!

And what about the new Constitution?

The proposed constitution includes three separate branches, clauses for impeachment, an allowance of non-senators in the executive branch to allow for increased involvement in SGA and the inclusion and distinction between Freshman Board and Freshman Forum.

These are all in the current SGA constitution.

SGA Vice President Matt Suber also lied to the Red and Black reporter:

“This is the first time a campus-wide e-mail was sent to students interested in candidacy. We want to keep the campaign equitable and accessible.”

Wrong again. Last year, President Will Childs and VP Tucker Brown sent out an email on the archnewsstudents listserv announcing that qualifying was open for the SGA elections. This email was sent on January 16th, 2006. [For a screen shot, since you have to login to the listserv webpage, click here.]

I challenge the Red and Black to investigate who lied to them, and why they printed an article without doing necessary background research.