“Diversity, Community, Excellence and Access.” This mantra appears on banners all over campus. These are goals of the university, but both recent events and long-standing bureaucratic procedures put into question the real commitment to these goals by the administration.
Last month, Student Activities Director Sharron Evans declared 26 campus organizations inactive for failing to send representatives to one of two mid-day mid-week Student Activities training sessions. There is also a large sign in Village Square asking students to run for office in the Student Government Association. These two items are not unrelated.
Northeastern has unique demographics and unique needs. As President Steinberg continues to state, when asked about graduation low rates, Northeastern has a diverse community with one of the largest returning-adult populations in the state.
Even though there is a significant segment of the student population that works 40 hours a week and may be heads of households or have other significant responsibilities, student life on campus outside the classroom is still a significant part of the college experience. Many students try to carve out enough time not only to participate in student organizations but also to run them, in spite of all the other parts of their lives they need to keep in balance.
Given these challenges, and given that student activities may be third or fourth in a list of priorities, why are things made more difficult than they need to be? Why does the SGA constitution mandate that the top student leaders, like executives in SGA, the student trustee, officers at clubs like WZRD and the Independent, need to take nine credit hours of coursework, even though that same document also states that no students or group of students may be denied the opportunity to take part in student clubs?
It is true that if a student works full time, has a family and takes three classes, they are not denied participation. But doing the math for the hours required discourages participation by working students who have limited time to dedicate to a plethora of commitments.
Requiring working students to take the day off to attend a meeting at 1:40 p.m. on a weekday, while convenient for Ms. Evans, discourages working student’s involvement in the management of student clubs. Ultimately, student clubs, prioritized behind supporting a family, coursework and possibly children, lose potentially great leaders (if they even get them at all).
Ms. Evans claims there is weakness in student leadership and that she needs to close these organizations as a “learning tool.” Evans needs to listen to President Salme Steinberg and understand where student activities fit in the grand scheme of things.
Student clubs need to be accessible to a diverse group of students of the most excellent caliber, regardless of the number of credit hours they have or whether or not they have to work during the day. Evans and the SGA need to look at requirements and ask if they are all completely necessary and whether they do more harm than good. If they don’t, SGA itself may continue to struggle to make quorum and run out the good leaders, leaving a legacy of mediocrity.