Letter: The real problem behind Virginia Tech Student Government

May 15, 2021

I joined the Virginia Tech Student Government Association (SGA) in Spring 2020 with the hopes of helping fix a troubled organization.

I was aware of its reputation of intolerance and dysfunction.

Through my time in SGA, I realized that the advisors were by far the largest cause of the organization's problems, rather than the student leadership.

SGA advisors were unable to maintain professionalism during meetings, failed to intervene when members used inappropriate rhetoric, lost applications during member recruitment, did not hold leadership accountable and blamed Legislative Branch members for the problems of the organization after all the top leadership resigned.

While SGA has been publicly called out for sexism, sexual harassment, and homophobia, the administration did not implement any changes to make it a safer place this year.

In October 2020, SGA advisors told me they were working on Title IX training for the organization, and when I followed up in February 2021 they had no recollection.

They went so far as to ask me to run a sexual harassment training myself. Advising staff only took my requests for training seriously, when I became angry and they were afraid I would speak out publicly.

To them, optics are far more important than improving the organization.

Administration was completely aware of the toxic and unsafe culture, but failed time and time again to intervene. When I voiced my concerns, I was told to “stick it out” in hopes for a better organization coming in the future.

As it stands now, SGA is being transitioned to Undergraduate Student Senate (USS) by a president and vice president that were not publicly elected by the student body.

The advisors pushed for an internal election to fill vacancies, and disregarded the organization’s commitment to representing the student body.

With plans to transition to USS, Virginia Tech neglected accountability for SGA and allowed the problems to fester this entire school year.

Founding USS on the same lack of transparency as SGA is setting up the new organization for failure.

Administration must take responsibility for the problems of SGA and make a commitment to transparency moving forward.

Carolina Bell, Blacksburg

https://roanoke.com/opinion/letters/letter-the-real-problem-behind-virginia-tech-student-government/article_3efe4348-a856-11eb-9d2a-432f96c575d2.html