By Anderson Coleman / south news editor
Student government associations achieve the same goals on all campuses. But on TR, association members get paid, and other campuses are asking why they don’t.
TR student development associate and sponsor Eddie Brassart said the decision to pay their members was due to the level of commitment it takes for students to be a part of student government.
“Our SGA members go above and beyond to make themselves available to attend morning, daytime and evening meetings,” he said. “They serve on campus committees as well as SGA exploratory committees, and they do all of this while maintaining their grades and juggling family and/or work responsibilities.”
Brassart said TR Campus felt it was only fair to compensate them for the amount of time the campus asks them to commit.
No one from TR would discuss exactly how much pay the SGA officers receive.
South SGA president Everett Jackson said TCC is one college with five campuses, and all five SGAs should be on the same page.
“The officers at the other campuses work just as much and just as hard as Trinity,” he said. “ So it is an injustice for those officers not to receive a stipend. This implies that Trinity River Campus is better than the other four campuses.”
TR vice president of student development services Adrian Rodriguez pointed out that TR SGA members do many activities around campus and have worked with TR administrators to locate signage and develop future plans.
“They have also worked with Educational Catering Inc. to create a more reasonable rate for lunch items for students, and they have worked with administration to identify additional informal learning spaces to provide students the opportunity to study outside the classroom utilizing well-intentional public and open spaces,” he said.
Rodriguez also said TR’s SGA has an executive board that meets regularly, leads open student senate meetings and meets with the campus administration’s President’s Cabinet on a monthly basis to share the ideas and goals of the SGA.
“Additionally, SGA has coordinated new efforts to conduct focus groups and gain student feedback through campus surveys,” Rodriguez said.
However, SE SGA campus president Bonnie Keller said she thinks pay should go to all SGA members on all campuses.
“I think that it is great that their officers get paid,” she said. “It’s a job to be a SGA officer.”
Keller said she wishes all officers would get paid for their efforts and said it’s work for all officers.
Jackson said pay would be well-deserved.
“I think it is because of the demand on SGA officers,” he said. “However, it should be done districtwide.”
Jackson said the SGAs at the other campuses have been established over the past year, and South Campus’ group has been in existence for some time.
“It could be that the student development association at Trinity River thought outside the box to make it possible, and this information is not shared with the other campuses,” he said.
“When I mentioned that the officers at the Trinity River were paid, it was new information to our vice president of student development services as well as our director of student development.”
