Hatin’ SGA

Two weeks ago, Josh Weiss lashed out at the SGA for failing to update The Key, the grade record previously kept up-to-date by the University. Here’s the backstory:

However, for all intensive purposes, The Key is dead.

After Associate Provost for Institutional Effectiveness Bob Boehmer crippled the online database of grade distributions in spring 2006 by removing professors’ names, there was an outcry by students to return The Key to its former self.

The Student Government Association, under then-President Jamie Peper, claimed to have struck a deal with the administration in which The Key would be returned, but under the control of SGA.

Several months later, The Key did pop up on the SGA web site, but has sat dormant now for the past year without updates.

Then, last week the former SGA webmaster Cory Watson responded to the criticism with an editorial of his own:

It takes one or two hours to get the text file to a point when it can be entered into the database. We are not allowed to post information for classes with less than 20 students in an effort to keep grades confidential, so those must be edited out. After that, the text file is uploaded to the database and it is a two to three hour ordeal to make it into a new page on The Key.

…

I am not paid hundreds of dollars per year, although I have not looked at the budget and am not aware if someone else is being paid to be the webmaster now. Mine was a one-time payment for the initial site design and setup.

It was my understanding that Cory Watson agreement with SGA was $1,000 for site design, setup, hosting, domain name, updates for a year, AND updating The Key.

So, here we are, summer 2007. And what is the status of The Key?

It is outdated, spread out over several websites, and unhelpful to students.

And what about all those campaign promises and Facebook groups about The Key? Ineffective.