Senators raised
concern last Tuesday night about whether the Student Government
Association’s plan for reaching off-campus students
would succeed, and whether or not a backup plan existed if
it failed.
The program, designated in the past as “Operation:
Outreach,” was reformatted earlier this year to make
it more efficient, said Callie J. Hargett, director of internal
affairs.
Hargett oversees the program, in which senators and constituents
contact each other through e-mail.
This is the first year “Outreach” has used e-mail
as the means of communication.
Hargett said the program has a 50 percent chance of being
successful.
“We are trying something new, and we don’t know
if it’s going to work,” she said. “I think
it will.”
In previous years, senators and students communicated through
clubs and organizational meetings. The format was unsuccessful
and was changed to work through e-mail, Hargett said.
Off-campus senator Howard S. Schreiber said the previous
version of “Outreach” was unfair because not
every student is involved in a club. Students may also be
involved in three or four clubs, and thus get three to four
times the representation.
Schreiber, one of the few veteran senators in the Senate,
said the program looks more promising than it did last year.
“I think, compared to last year with the whole club
thing, [this] is going to be a lot better,” Schreiber
said.
Senators asked Tuesday evening about a contingency plan should
the program fail.
Hargett said she had not developed any new ideas, and encouraged
other senators to speak up if they had ideas of their own.
“It’s almost disheartening to hear of contingency
plans just because this is a new idea and we haven’t
done this before,” off-campus senator Matthew D. Whisenant
said.
Schreiber said the biggest obstacle facing the program was
student apathy, not laziness on the part of senators.
“The campus is so apathetic,” Schreiber said.
“If you aren’t involved with clubs and organizations,
you don’t care. Apathy will be what makes this sell.”
“It’s hard, because people that care are going
to respond, whether it be through e-mail or telephone or
coming to the office," Hargett said.
"For people who don’t care, I can’t force
them to."
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