Best Student Government
Community Colleges

Winner: Miami-Dade College—Wolfson

Winner
Miami-Dade College—Wolfson
The key to Miami Dade College—Wolfson’s Student Government Association is keeping things connected, using its Inter Club Council to keep communication open between student organizations and to organize joint projects like club fairs, Thanksgiving Pot Luck, and Multicultural Day. Developed several years ago by the SGA president (this year it’s Ivan Ureña), each club and organization sends a representative to meet twice a month and exchange ideas and information about upcoming events. This allows SGA to keep the student body informed about student issues and concerns.

“This past year, ICC had been more effective than in previous years,” says Christine Ferreras, SGA’s assistant program coordinator for student life. “The communication among the clubs and organizations has allowed for greater collaboration in events, programs, and community projects.”

SGA also links its campus to the outside world. This year, the Legislative Assembly was created as a forum for SGA, ICC, and the student body for discussing state legislative issues. On each issue, a preliminary vote is taken to better determine the students’ mandate. They’ve also invited other colleges in their district to this forum, including Broward Community College, Edison College, and Palm Beach Community College. The Assembly better prepares SGA to represent students at the state conference for the Florida Junior/Community College Student Government Association. “This is the first year we’re doing this, and hopefully next year's SGA will hold up this tradition in order to better represent our student body,” Ferreras says.

SGA connected other campuses, too, by inviting them to their sixth annual Halloween Haunted House. The event gets bigger and better every year and prompted Aldo Nahed, former editor of the campus paper, Metropolis, to call the festival “the best Halloween party in town.” This year, SGA gave 50 children from the Child Development Day Care Center the chance to trick-or-treat around campus—connecting with families in the process.

Internally, SGA senators and members network through leadership training and development programs, incorporating workshops, retreats, ropes courses, and teambuilding meetings. “Senators learned to work together, trust one another, and learned how to lead—not only through their actions but by teaching others how to lead,” says Gabriela Narvaez, SGA’s public relations officer.

One area where SGA fails to connect with others is their online presence or lack thereof. “We’ve fallen back on the technological bus and hadn’t been able to get our Web site up,” Narvaez says. “This year, one of our major priorities has been to get the Web site up and students informed. Now that we have it, we’re perfecting the site to include scholarship links, the book exchange program, and other important information for students.” The book swap is conducted using Yahoo! (Finance) Groups.

Striking a chord with student voters is another challenge. Although this year’s turnout was less than last year’s high of 12 percent and SGA’s goal, a 10 percent turnout is still respectable at a community college where many students only appear on campus to attend classes. SGA also has hired students to develop an online voting system to be used at all six MDC campuses this spring. “We plan on increasing voter turnout by voting online and getting the faculty to get their students to vote,” says SGA Secretary Tammy Belcher.

MDC—Wolfson’s SGA is connecting students to their community, striving to continually improve when other community college SGs are content to just let classes rule—and little else.

Contact SGA at dlopez@mdcc.edu or visit www.mdc.edu/wolfson/departments/studentlife/sga.

Recipe for a Great SG (Reprise)
Wonder where the Runner-Up is? Seems like the Student Government entries for community colleges—and beyond—were lacking this year. Perhaps a refresher course on what makes a great SG is in order. The following list provides a starting point to ensure that you’re great at serving your constituency—students!

1. Put students first. Remember that as an SG leader, you’re a public servant and that students are your constituency. It’s all about them and not about you.

2. Improve, improve, improve. While you don’t have to feel pressured to always excel beyond last year’s group, the goal should be to excel to your, and your administration’s, utmost abilities.

3. Guarantee fiscal responsibility. Put budget safeguards in place, establish an approval system, and define a requisition policy.

4. Lobby with others. There’s strength in numbers. Statewide groups are a start. Then, locally, collaborate with other schools in your area to accomplish goals for all of your students.

5. Communicate. Tell students about the services you’re providing, the events you’ve planned for them, and how SG serves them and is available to them. Then tell them how to contact you and remain visible.

6. Implement online voting. It’s the quickest, easiest way to boost voter turnout. And eventually the pace of progress will demand that you do it.

7. Establish a transition plan. Building a great SG that lasts beyond your administration means building a solid infrastructure and then documenting it, establishing a firm foundation from which the next team can work.

8. Strengthen your relationship with the student body. Does your constituency truly see you as advocates for them? Are you approachable? Do they know you care? Conduct an honest survey that evaluates student perceptions, needs, and wants.

9. Strengthen your relationship with the administration. Do school administrators respect you as leaders and as advocates for students? Do they take you seriously? Humility is the key here. Then bolster that with responsibility by being people of your word.

10. Strengthen your relationships with campus media. Work on developing a relationship built on mutual respect—and you may have to take the first step. Later, you’ll thank them for being a watchdog that helps you build a better SG administration—the kind they’ll want to write about!

Want to learn more? Consider membership in the American Student Government Association or attend one of its many conferences. Visit www.asgaonline.com.

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