The Norwich University Student Government Association ratified a new constitution last year that provides representation and a direct voice to the school’s administration and leadership, according to its executive staff.
“The Norwich Constitution was a pretty big deal because it spelled out how the students were going to be voiced on campus for the first time in Norwich history,” said Michael McCarthy, a 21-year-old junior criminal justice major political science minor from Needham, Mass.
McCarthy is a member of the executive staff, serving as the elected vice president for the student body for the 2010-11 school year.
Joshua Fontanez, a 20-year-old junior political science major from Brown Mills, N.J., was elected last spring to be the president of the student body.
“My role is to enforce legislation while working with people throughout the university including the president, the board of trustees, the board of fellows, all of the president’s cabinet and making sure that the voice of the student body is heard, understood and that action is taken upon that voice,” Fontanez said.
As head of the organization, Fontanez works hand-in-hand with the student senate.
“The senate is the direct representative and voice of the students; [it] passes legislation and discusses ideas on how to keep the Norwich community intact,” Fontanez said.
Fontanez said that “he has no power over the leadership of either the corps leader or the civilian leader because his job is to represent both lifestyles equally.”
His main role is to address issues that affect everyone.
“SGA is trying to fix the school through the students; the students bring their issues to SGA and then we go through the proper channels and make their voices heard and let people know what is going on through the students,” said Thomas Houghton, a 19-year-old sophomore civil engineer from Long Island, N.Y.
Houghton represents the sophomores as a Corps of Cadets student senator.
“The legislative section of the student government is the student senate, they meet once weekly, and are elected on lifestyle and class year,” McCarthy said.
The student government has direct contact with President Schneider, the commandant staff, athletic staff, Sodexho staff and registrar’s office, according to McCarthy. “We are the direct link to them and you can be a part of that.”
“A lot of people complain that they don’t have a voice here, and I always hear folks saying that they go to the gym or they eat the food and they are dissatisfied with what’s going on and they feel like they have no way to tell someone,” said McCarthy. “They refer to Jackman Hall as this big looming administration that doesn’t listen to anyone, when in reality all you have to do is go down to student government and tell us what you are interested in, what you’re passionate about, what you want to see changed.”
The elections for positions for next year will take place sometime next semester in April. There are still opportunities to participate this year.
“To become involved all somebody would have to do is show up to any of the meetings; after they show up three times they will become a student representative and they can talk during all the meetings, bring up issues, and they can ask questions,” Houghton said.
Participation in SGA is key to representation.
“Our biggest impact is showing people the results of what we have done to prove our legitimacy. I encourage everybody to come out and get involved, no matter what lifestyle we can have an impact,” Fontanez said.
“As a student senator we do a wide variety of things from voting on ratification of clubs and if need be suspension of clubs,” said McCarthy. “Also working with club funding, we are tasked with handling thousands of the school’s dollars and deciding where those funds go based on where they actually are needed.”
The student government was budgeted $15,000 to spread out to fund the clubs of the university.
“It is the little things I want to work on and smooth everything out for everybody else,” Houghton said. “I wish that students knew how hard everybody works in student government and they spend a lot of time just working out the behind-the-scenes issues that occur.”