With the low voter response in the Student Government Association election and the resignation of the senior class president and vice-president, it has become apparent that SGA needs to evaluate itself and its agenda. The SGA has an important role to play but is falling short in several ways.
The first area is leadership development. More students need to challenge themselves and attempt leadership positions like ones found in the SGA. It appears as if the same people always apply for all the leadership roles such as the SGA, CAP Board and even the Loquitur. You can find the same people working on two if not more of these organizations at one point in time. Students need to realize that a leadership role in student government is excellent preparation for a future career.
The role of the adviser needs to be examined. The adviser is just that -one who advises the students and allows them to succeed or fail. Students of SGA have raised the question of bringing in an adviser who is not in an administrative office directly related to issues the students deal with.. Although some in the SGA are frustrated with their current adviser and want to vote to remove him, they need to put themselves under the same microscope and examine their faults that may have negatively affected the success of SGA.
As the new SGA leaders prepare for next year they must provide an agenda to the community of plans that they wish to achieve. Cabrini students need to know of open forums that SGA has scheduled in order for them to know their voice is being heard. By encouraging the community to participate in the SGA meetings, this provides a perfect example to the administration of how the students are working on particular issues.
SGA and the administration need to examine the role they want to play in the future of Cabrini. SGA can sit back and be organization with no direction or they can work together and challenge administration decisions. The roadblock that the administration has placed in front of SGA has to be torn down and the SGA leaders have to work together to construct a realistic, functioning association.
The mistakes of past SGA years have to be corrected and the administration has to allow the current SGA leaders an opportunity to prove themselves as an organization that can potentially change a situation for students. The SGA will be going through difficult times attempting to change their purpose while at the same time making their voice be heard. The Cabrini students should show support, for only in unity can we accomplish things.
Defining indecency
One person’s taste is another person’s disgust. The Federal Communications Commission has been on a hunt for obscene material ever since a certain breast gave the world a viewing at the Super Bowl. In most cases, it is not the material that is regarded as indecent, rather the context it is used in.
The restrictions laid down by the FCC apply more to television and radio than to any other medium. Although the first amendment is always thrown up as an argument against the FCC’s decisions, this is not necessarily the case since obscene material is not really covered by it.
Certainly at Cabrini the Woodcrest magazine can be found using “naughty” words in their stories that would be censored from television and radio due to its offensiveness. The difference between them is that while readers generally seek the magazine out, television and radio are considered media that are easily accessible.
The FCC and their battle against indecency do have its benefits for cultural, artistic works. The envelope has continuously been pushed so far in all forms of broadcasting and publication. By allowing the FCC to step in and control the “problem,” the same people who originally crossed the line can do so once again and be considered fresh and original.
Given that any audience viewer has the ability to tune out any material they may think to be obscene, why then must the FCC feel the need to moderate what we see and hear? Options are available like the V-chip, website blockers and just your basic old parental supervision. By the time the presidential election is over the concern over indecent content in broadcasting and print will
,i>Posted to the web by Mark Garlit
