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Graves: SGA should teach students

Senate needs to identify top student issues, candidate says

by Portia-Elaine Gant
Senior Staff Writer

This is the last in a series of four profiles of this year's Student Government Association presidential candidates.

Since he began his college career, sophomore Michael Graves said that he has only been interested in two things -- engineering and government. After spending a year as an engineering major, Graves realized that his true talent lay in government and opted for a major in political science.

"Last year, I was elected senator for the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. I've been doing that for a year, but I think I can do more," he said. "I decided to run for election because I felt that the current leadership isn't doing a sufficient job. SGA needs a new direction, and I have the leadership skills to bring it into that new direction."

That new direction would be the antithesis of the Student Voice party, Graves said.

"The current leadership is all Student Voice, and they claim that they worked on parking, but parking is still a problem. They said they would work on the bookstore, but the bookstore is still a problem. All the students see is failure, and I think it's very generous to vote them back in and give them another change, but it's a chance I don't think they deserve," Graves said.

What the students do deserve, he said, is a professional organization that can "confront negativity" and still work for the students' benefit.

"SGA should be a teaching organization," Graves said.

Graves said the problems he's seen in the SGA lie with the executives, not the Senate.

"The Senate has done a fabulous job. We've passed so much legislation this administration, and overall I'm very content with the progress of the Senate," Graves said. "However, there's been a wall between (the Senate and executive board). I think that new leadership would start a change of direction and make SGA a more positive organization where the Senate, executive board and student body work together."

Graves proposed a top-down enhancement in which the executive officers would work more closely with the Senate, which in turn would interact with the student body more frequently. Most importantly, Graves said, he would like to see SGA as an organization that is directly connected to the students.

"SGA should be the most visible organization, because everything we do in our daily lives has some type of connection with SGA. Every kind of problem or issue that students have, SGA is there to help," Graves said. "I love helping people, and this position will give me a chance to do that."
 

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