The election confetti has settled and Florida A&M students are left with the harsh reality of now. As I watched history being made again, I was left wondering what it will take for FAMU students to hold our elected Student Government Association officials accountable.
Several students coordinated an early voting march on Oct. 29 to the Leon County Courthouse, where Rep. John Lewis and Commissioner Bill Proctor joined along with numerous dignitaries.
As we arrived to the polls with cameras flashing and media coverage, FAMU Interim President Larry Robinson took the time to publicly thank SGA President Marissa West for being the “sole organizer” for the march in which she had no problem accepting full credit.
Students received bottled water from onlookers on the street while West had the audacity to overlook the students she was sworn in to represent. My numerous attempts at getting a personal public apology by West and others in the SGA administration were ignored.
The problem within SGA is the extreme arrogance and spirit of disconnect between our elected officials and the student body. We, the student body, with every fiber of our being, must seek to eradicate and remove the cancerous disease this institution calls student leadership, which I feel West represents.
We must begin to speak out against an SGA leadership that continues to cater to 10% of the student body and ignores the frustrations of the 90%. We, the student body, must demand that the frivolous spending of activities and services stop.
We allow SGA and other committees to spend thousands of dollars on homecoming and halftime shows when our institution has areas where money could better serve the students. If we continue to allow the SGA elite to dictate the direction of our student body, then this institution will never progress.
Our SGA officials are supposed to hold FAMU’s administration accountable, not stay silent and collect letters of recommendation as the general student body gets the shaft. It is time for students to get angry, mobilize and seek to seize control of our student government and gain representation for the betterment of all Rattlers.
FAMU students, we must become the change we would like to see and begin to revolutionize our way of thinking. Let us reform SGA by any means necessary, but the change starts with us.