RE: The Senate’s desperate soliciting, 9/17
I would like to clarify misleading points from The Hurricane’s last editorial and give the real benefits of LegiSlate from months of research with the software makers and universities using the program.
The fundraising intent is to ask umbrella and larger student organizations for funds, not to prey on organizations that are strapped to their budgets with nothing to spare. Student Government knows and supports the fundraising efforts of the Organization for Jamaican Unity and the Caribbean Students Organization for Hurricane Ivan victims, as was seen in the Sept. 5 Senate meeting.
As for the real impact of LegiSlate, it’s not solely for Senate to use – the Executive and Cabinet branches can use it as well. Universities such as the University of Oklahoma had their student involvement in their student government association triple and had site hits increase significantly on their student government website. In addition, meeting minutes and profile updates from Cabinet, Senate and Executive Board can be posted the next day rather than the next week. Instead of reading The Hurricane editorials about the uselessness of the Cabinet and Senate, students can understand the work they do in researching and resolving university issues.
As head of the LegiSlate project, I am enthusiastic to see the optimism of student organizations I approached thus far about our initiative. These organizations believe in investing in Student Government and increasing campus involvement and awareness. Student organizations pledging funds or supporting this project help make their Student Government better for the students.
John Constantinide
Student Government Webmaster