Staff Editorial
Those of you who have perused The Duke’s news section this year might have noticed that we are getting back to bi-weekly coverage of the Student Government Association. For the past few years, this was not something the paper has done, and that was a failure of our duties to serve campus as the voice of the student body.
The reason we are back on this beat is the SGA’s remarkable influence on campus life. They are responsible for tens of thousands of dollars that get distributed to student organizations. Duquesne’s students have a right to know where this money goes, why and who is making these decisions.
“The SGA has several functions: representing students’ concerns to the administration through continuing contact with the Division of Student Life, recognizing student organizations, allocating funds to recognized student organizations,” per the SGA page on Campus Link.
Among their most notable impacts on student life is their management of the loop shuttles that take students to various locations from campus, the most popular of which is the South Side shuttle.
The service is used by hundreds of South Side commuters coming to school every day. Programs like that show the positive influence that a government for and by students can do. The SGA has senators from each school, in order to get a holistic representation of the student body. They can be a force for good in student life, and we believe that the accountability our coverage will provide can be at least a small part of that.
The SGA is also responsible for organizing the Night of Lights event on campus, which brings the holiday spirit to campus every year.
The reason for the hiatus in coverage dates back to 2017, when in a public meeting, the SGA displayed their budget information. The Duke went to publish this information, and the SGA tried to exercise prior restraint, a power they did not and still do not have.
The Duke shared the public information with the student body and after that, the SGA tightened up, and it became difficult to cover their activities.
Everyone who was involved in that dispute has graduated and are long gone, and we are happy to rebuild our relationship with such an impactful body on Duquesne’s campus.
Every other other Wednesday during the school year, the body will meet to discuss how they can be the best government for the student body, and we will be there to report on what they do.
Their day-to-day activities may not always be flashy, big-time stories, but our readers can come to expect consistent and reliable coverage of student government, the good, the bad and the ugly.