Staff editorial: Putting the fizz in COLA
Reporting about the SGA, not a record of it: The Johns Hopkins News-Letter published this and the SGA did not write it, file it, or approve it. The archive holds it because the article itself uses the phrases “student government” and “student council”.
Summary
- This Johns Hopkins News-Letter editorial covers COLA’s role in choosing student-group leaders after a referendum changed student-government rules.
- The News-Letter reported that the referendum erased the existing Student Council bylaws and created questions about appointing next year’s MSE Symposium co-chairs.
- The paper reported that COLA had traditionally chosen leaders for major groups before sending the selections to Student Council, but was no longer under its jurisdiction.
- The article says the MSE Symposium received roughly $100,000 from the Dean of Student Life.
- The editorial urged COLA to include former co-chairs in candidate interviews and give them at least one combined vote, then urged Student Council to add that rule to new bylaws.
- The reporter writes that Dennis Boothe, a 2002 MSE co-chair, said, "COLA's always been really disorganized. They don't know what they're doing," and that representatives had "no idea" what the job involved when his group was selected.