Internal Affairs Committee Chair breaks down the story with SGA’s constitution.
The Student Government Association (SGA) at the University of Tulsa is currently working to pass the newest edition of their constitution. Internal Affairs Committee (IAC) Chair Luke Tidrick, class of 2028, explains that this is a continuous effort to update the document. He expresses how SGA’s efforts reflect their core values, as well as what goals the organization has and the role that the student body plays in them.
What exactly is the situation going on with the constitution?
“Basically, we used to be Student Association, now it has been split into Student Activities
Board [SAB] and Student Government Association [SGA]. It’s been that way for a long time. Since the split happened, we’ve been operating under the same constitution for SGA, and that was 2023. So, it’s been a long time since we’ve been able to update the constitution, and we’ve been trying to do it ever since. It’s a very difficult process because it has to get out of Senate, and from Senate it has to be voted on and approved by the student body, and from there has to get board approval. This has been the latest attempt to hopefully finally get this through [for] board
approval. … I felt confident in this attempt.”
Why are all of these details important to SGA? Why is it important that we go through all
of this?
“I think it’s important because people want to feel certain that there is a way of doing
things that is adhered to. I think especially just because of the nature of it being
student government, it’s attracting a lot of people who are really concerned about the
way all sorts of governments function. There’s a lot of concerns: is this
happening in a democratic way? Are we listening to student voices in a way that a
democratic government should be listening to student voices? We do get nitpicky,
but I think a lot of it comes from a good place. It comes from a place of wanting to make
sure we’re as consistent in our judgements and our decisions as possible, we
are taking into account student concerns as much as possible and that we’re doing things in
a way that if the president [of SGA] should change, that shouldn’t mean that the entire function and structure of what we do should change along with it.”
What goals does SGA have moving forward?
“I think probably our foremost goal is: how can we maximize the advocacy piece of
SGA? How can we make what SGA does … about actually improving life here for students on campus and commuters? How can we make TU as good of a place as possible for students? I think that’s what we want to focus our attention on. … We have been really working on getting our meeting times down and making sure discussion is productive. We’re [moving] away from being this body that maybe in the past has been perhaps overly granular and overly concerned with these little details, [and toward] one that’s really trying to make sure we have our documents in a good place. Now let’s focus on making sure these orgs are getting chartered and taken care of, and making sure people in our resident halls have good facilities to use, and things like that. We’re trying to [focus on] student advocacy and external outreach and taking care of student orgs … and less of this very insular, self-conscious governance.”
How can students like me, who are not a part of SGA, get involved?
“It depends on the year. [For] freshman, we did have a junior senator program, and
that’s a way we really try to get freshman voices. … Tuesday nights, 9 p.m., are open to the entire student body. We encourage anyone who has a question or … any concern or anything like that [to] come. We have not had a closed meeting since I’ve been here, and it’s my third year. We try to make it as accessible as possible. I also think a lot of people maybe don’t know what membership looks like in SGA, so maybe they know they can come to the meetings but don’t know, “Okay, if I do become a senator, what do I do?” I think that’s a place we could improve, to provide a little more education about what being a part of SGA means. Hopefully we can get some more people involved.”
Is there anything else you would like the student body to know?
“At the end of the day, it might be confusing, and maybe in the past we haven’t shown it
in the best way, but I would say that SGA on the whole is a group of students who are
really trying to make TU a better place. Not that we’re perfect by any stretch of the
imagination, not that we have never wasted time … but I think our intentions
are very good. For most people, most senators, it’s a volunteer basis. … Most of the people doing it are doing it because they love TU and they want to make TU better for students.”
