In his letter “More change needed outside of allocations” in the January 25th issue of The Maroon, Economics Club President Matthew Portnoy expressed his frustrations with SGA’s apparent lack of support in advertising on-campus events. While we at SGA are pleased to hear that Mr. Portnoy has started a conversation like this and took the time to provide us with feedback, there are a few points from his letter that we feel are necessary to clear up.

Contrary to the implications in Mr. Portnoy’s letter, the Student Government Association is in no way responsible for the way that student organizations choose to advertise their events. That being said, here is a quick run down on some specific ways that students can market events.

Any organization wishing to advertise in the Danna Center may do so through the Office of Co-Curricular Programs in the following ways: putting in a publicity request form through OCP, posting flyers in the Danna Center, placing ads on the plasma screens near the One Loyola room and spreading the word to fellow organizations through the Student Organization President Listserv. These can all be done by making a quick visit to the Office of Co-Curricular Programs. Similarly, anyone who’d like to advertise in Residence Halls may do so by turning in their flyers to the Office of Residential Life.

Another option is to visit the Sodexo Office in the St. Charles Room to advertise via the napkin holders in the various dining areas on campus. The Office of Co-Curricular Programs directly contacts every single student organization president at numerous points throughout the year with information on how to publicize their events. Student Affairs, which encompasses both the Offices of Co-Curricular Programs and Residential Life, is very responsive to these sort of student concerns, and I’m sure they would love to hear any sort of feedback on ways they can help better the experience of student organizations on campus.

In regards to the rest of Mr. Portnoy’s letter, we are pleased to hear positive feedback on the new allocations process, as we are very excited about the direction the new process is going in. Though Mr. Portnoy may not have meant to drag SGA specifically into this conversation, we thought that his observations concerning student organizations were an important issue to address.

We encourage any and all feedback in the arena of student government. We ask that students wishing to contact us take advantage of the SGA Suggestion Box next to the milk and sugar station at CC’s, contact us via our Facebook or Twitter accounts or come talk to us face to face in the SGA Office (Bottom floor of the Danna Center, directly across from the Office of Co-Curricular Programs).

Sincerely,

The SGA Executive Staff