Students Work to Revitalize Shared Governance at WWC

Emily Cobb | April 13, 2023


On April 12, Tacci Smith the dean of students, and students Mae Craig and Sophia Rowe hosted an interest meeting for the Student Government Association (SGA) at Sage Cafe. During the meeting, the main focus was on the current goals and plans to get SGA up and running again.

Smith will be in charge of facilitating and advising it. Craig and Rowe have been working alongside her to help revitalize SGA. Neither of them has been in student government before.

“I just had a conversation with Tacci [Smith] about how I was upset with Sage Cafe closing and just the lack of student voice on campus,” Craig said. “So we talked to her about what restarting SGA would mean.”

SGA would be the new student voice of shared governance and could control things like events, class committees, money and student policies like the school’s current alcohol policy. SGA has previously been called the student caucus but was changed for simplicity. SGA would serve as a direct form of communication between the cabinet and students.

“Student government right now is dead and it probably shouldn’t be,” Rowe said. “Everyone here is interested in community engagement, and so it ideally would look like fun social events in order to get people together in a community space.”

Ellie Teweles is a freshman at Warren Wilson College (WWC) and is on the Land Stewards Crew. They attended the SGA interest meeting. 

“I think it's very disappointing that we don't have one [SGA], and that's why I'm very much extra motivated to come here,” Teweles said. “I think especially in a community that's motivated by education and engagement and community, it's very important that we have a student government.”

Rowe seconded the idea that students at WWC are motivated by community and engagement which is why they find it important to have an SGA here as well.

“I feel like a lot of people here have the urge to sort of fight against the man and work on that side of community engagement and activism,” Rowe said. 

Incoming WWC President Damian Fernández hopes that student governance can build community and be a source of guidance for him.

“Structures are important, and I applaud the effort at rethinking and revamping shared governance, especially for a moment like this, when there are so many challenges at the college, but also in the nation – we need to understand who has the authority,” Fernández said. “And I will need guidance as to how to begin, [and] what will be most effective.”

One thing to note is that every student is automatically a member of SGA, they can just choose how present they are. There are talks of having SGA be its own crew within the Work Program Office. 

Fernández believes that college decisions should be made with input from all its constituents.

“I say that no one owns Warren Wilson,” Fernández said. “We all go into it, we are the agents that make this place what it is.”

For the remainder of the year, meetings will be held in Gladfelter in Mierke on Fridays from 12-1 p.m. starting April 14. All are welcome to join and share thoughts on the future of student governance at Warren Wilson.

“It [SGA] is just offering students the ability to have a voice and kind of talk with people that are working for the college to help navigate,” Craig said.

If one is interested in participating in SGA they can contact Smith at tsmith@warren-wilson.edu, Craig at mcraig.s1@warren-wilson.edu and Rowe at srowe.f20@warren-wilson.edu

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