Have you ever had something exciting happen to you that you had to tell your friends about right that moment? Enthused and enlivened, you whip out your iPhone, squeeze the reliably unreliable power button, unlock your screen with your super-secret four-digit password, tap the shiny texting app, speed scroll through your contacts to your best friend’s name (organized by last name, what is this, kindergarten?), and machine-gun your lengthy text to them telling all about how this is the best day since chicken biscuit chapel, only to get the baffling and exasperating response: “Who is this? I lost my contacts.” #areyoukiddingme.
It seems that the Student Association too struggles with an identity issue along these lines. The SA seems to be as well-known as the secret collection of vintage Dr. Burks trading cards kept somewhere in the CAB office. “Those exist?” you ask, intrigued. Exactly. When it comes to the SA, many students don’t have a full understanding of our role or purpose, and they end up asking a similar question, “Who is this? I only saw the chapel announcement.” They have gotten the text message about it, but there is no name or photo ID to go with it. Many know about the SA, but have an incomplete picture of what we do. I didn’t even know with certainty what the SA really did until a couple weeks into this semester. It took some time wrestling with the position for me to really get a grasp on what I was doing. So we’re not offended, like you have been by your absent-minded BFF, but we do want to make people aware.
The SA constitution states that the role of the SA is to “perpetuate the goals of the university, acting as liaison between the administration and students, creating and maintaining the spirit and morale of the university through various activities, supply leadership for the student body and acting as a catalyst for social and spiritual growth” (Article 3 section 2). Now, this is a lovely and loquacious list of lucrative language, but giving you the definition doesn’t tell you all that we actually do.
So, what does the SA do? What does it look like for the SA to fulfill its defined role? Boiled down, the role of the SA is to improve the Harding experience in any way possible. Our entire purpose is to use our position and influence to build on the good aspects of the student experience and to do away with the bad. First, as a liaison, we meet regularly with various faculty members on campus to voice student ideas for the different aspects of campus life.
For example, we meet with President Bruce McLarty to talk about anything from chapel and spiritual life to our next Vine video.
Second, as an organizer of events, our goal is to create an experience or opportunity for students that are not already available. One example of this would be the fireworks show after the home game this weekend. Third, as a body of student leadership, we both direct committees and events, and seek to maximize our personal influence. Our leadership role includes both organizational leadership and personal leadership. And last, as a catalyst for spiritual growth, we seek to improve the effectiveness of chapel, strengthen our personal discipleship and organize spiritual activities like Secret Church that facilitate spiritual growth. The SA does this and more, all for the sake of improving the Harding experience.
And the great thing is, you will play a role in helping us create the SA. We have a definition and a theme, but we will be creating ourselves all year long. At the end of the day, you define the SA. When it’s all said and done, you are the one experiencing the transition. Your input will influence our decisions; your ideas will determine our direction. So now you can add our number to your contacts list, send us a message and we will work to define the SA together.
