The Student Welfare Committee was created by SGA members to promote greater student unity. About half of the senators in the SGA are members of the Student Welfare Committee, but ideally, all senators should support chartered committees and be involved with them to some extent.
There is a rift between the SGA and the Student Welfare Committee. When Chair of the Student Welfare Committee, SGA Senator Adeicha Martinez asked her fellow SGA senators for help in planning and setting up for the “Welcome Back Party,” she was largely disappointed with the turnout. Only three senators showed up for the meeting she called to plan for the party, and out of 17 senators only seven showed up to help set up for it. Apparently, some senators just showed up to enjoy the festivities the day of the party, but not to do their jobs of helping out.
Now, the majority of the SGA is upset with Senator Martinez and others who planned the party because they did not get to vote and have an opinion on how much money was to be spent on it. The Student Welfare Committee used $3,000 of the SGA budget to throw the “Welcome Back Party.” Only $1,000-1,500 was spent in total after the money from the tickets was counted. This is nothing compared to the $20,000 the SGA spent on a party in 2004, as reported in the June 2, 2004 issue of the Independent.
However, the point at issue is that those who are now upset about the amount of money spent at the party are the same members who did not show up to the meeting Senator Martinez called to decide how the party was going to be paid for. It seems that there is a conflict of interest between those who did not do their jobs by skipping the meeting, and those who are now complaining about how the Student Welfare Committee handled the planning for the “Welcome Back Party.”
According to Senator Martinez, the conflict has come to a head, and the SGA is currently trying to disband the Student Welfare Committee because of this difference of opinion. The Student Welfare Committee is being attacked because of the money issue, even though every senator on the SGA was informed of the meeting to plan for the party. The senators voting to have the Committee disbanded are failing to see that a committee cannot be successful without its member’s active participation and support from the all the senators of the SGA.