In response to The State Press's Oct. 30 editorial, " USG's failure to adequately involve students continues":
For the past few weeks, there has been harsh and uncalled-for criticism of USG over outreach regarding the athletic fee bill. Two editorials have posted incorrect information about both the information in the bill and the outreach USG did leading up the passage of the athletics fee bill.
Here are the facts: USG reached out to the leaders of every single student organization (more than 1,200 students in total) twice to invite them to the town hall on Oct. 21 and for the task force meeting on Oct. 25.
At both of these events, attendance was dismal. In fact, at the town hall, there was one student who admits herself that she asked more than half the questions.
USG also reached out to the Big 5 organizations on this campus, which collectively represent the majority of students. We took the proposal to the leaders of these organizations for feedback for USG. We even attended the meetings of these organizations to seek feedback from members on the proposal.
Overwhelmingly, the feedback was positive. Once the proposal was explained in full, students supported it because of the huge benefit it gave to students, both academically and through athletics.
The simple fact is this: USG isn't at fault for any lack of student input of the athletic fee bill proposal. We reached out through every medium and mode of communication at our disposal and when it came down to it, no one showed up to our senate meeting to speak against the proposal. If you are looking for someone to blame because you feel your voice wasn't heard, think about what you did to make sure your voice was heard before blaming USG.
Democracy requires participation, and if you don't participate, you forfeit your ability to criticize.
Devon Mills
Undergraduate
USG Senator
