The Student Government Association (SGA) is the representative body of students at MCLA that oversees and funds over 50 campus clubs and organizations. SGA meetings take place on Mondays from 7 pm to 9 pm in Murdock 218. All are welcome to voice their opinion on any topic from that week’s agenda. 

SGA “gives students a voice within the college administration while advocating for positive change on campus.” 

Allison Williams, SGA Advisor said, “SGA tries their best to be a place where students can come to have their questions answered and to maybe learn something they didn’t know before.” 

It consists of Senators, an Executive Cabinet, and Class Officers, all of whom are elected to represent the needs of the students. Elections are open for all vacant positions including E-board and anyone who wants to be on SGA, including class councils. Now is the time to join SGA if you want to make a difference; elections will be held on April 25th and the 26th.  

MCLA’s Student Government is funded by the Student Activities Tax, and the money that is allocated to recognized clubs, organizations, and other student activities on campus comes from the students themselves who pay a fee of $150 per semester to the Student Activities Trust Fund. 

Emily Alling, the Associate Dean of Library Services, gave the governors during the SGA meeting an overview of library services. For example, there is an interlibrary loan that gives students access to hundreds of shared resources and texts from countless other libraries. The library also has course reveres, or the textbooks for most courses on campus, for borrowing use on-premises, along with research, tech, and citation help, and week-long laptop lending, currently 15 laptops are available, for students who may not have access to their own laptop whether currently or indefinitely. There were also mentions of a ‘textbook equity advisory committee’ being brought together, which was mentioned in a recent survey sent out by Alling. 

“Textbook pricing and accessibility’s a real barrier for lots of folks,” said Alling. 

This committee, which breaks out into subcommittees who meet monthly, has received a small aid grant to assist them in making sure there are open educational resources on campus, and that student texts are freely licensed and/or a whole lot cheaper. 

The library will also undertake, along with the bookstore, the task of course marking, which would help students registering for classes see if a specific course is free, in ability and text, or less than 50$. 

There is also going to be construction going on in Freel Library which started Monday, March 6th and is supposed to last until June 30th of this year. Everyone should have received an email from Joseph DaSilva with a bit more information on the construction itself, but the bottom two floors of the library are available as normal, while the top floor will only be open for “browsing, text access and the bathrooms should be fine.” They ask everyone to follow all posted construction signs and stay out of fenced working areas. 

The SGA Senators also reviewed multiple constitutions for new clubs on campus such as Poetry, Gardening, and Chess Club. A club’s constitution should give a run-through of its goals, its mission, and ways in which it can aid the student body. The Senators are looking to make sure that the club is equitable for all students on campus, and if it’s not then it gets sent back to another committee that handles the editing of the constitutions. They also noted that club elections are due to happen soon since elections for club E-Board members happen every spring and are open to everyone.