Everyone is required to pay Student Government fees at the beginning of the year, and most of us have no idea where that money goes.
For the most part, it really does not matter. SGA fees go toward paying for various organizations that do a lot of good for students.
However, your elected representatives also support organizations that you may or may not want your money going to.
Two weeks ago, the Loyola Life Group was chartered as an SGA sponsored organization.
Its mission is simple: to abolish abortion, euthanasia and the death penalty.
It joins the Student Democrats, the Loyola Greens and other Loyola organizations that should not have been chartered.
I am not saying that the Loyola Life Group should not be allowed to express its opinions.
However, the group is not a social group but a political one and should not be financed by SGA.
SGA represents all students. It supports groups that enrich the quality of student life by supporting a variety of social activities and organizations. It must only support social organizations to properly represent its constituents.
If SGA takes a stand on political issues, that divides its constituents. Students would refuse to finance SGA if it held an opposing stand on certain issues.
Therefore, for the sake of representing all students, SGA cannot support political organizations.
The purpose of political organizations is not to provide an activity, but to make a statement.
SGA supports this statement by sponsoring the organization.
If the federal government started giving tax dollars to the National Rifle Association, there would be riots and protests.
The Loyola Life Group’s members tried to portray their organization as a group for educating students rather than as a political group.
However, it is not an open forum.
I do realize that we go to a Jesuit institution and that Jesuit values should be upheld, but the abolishment of capital punishment is not a Jesuit value.
Although Pope John Paul II is not in favor of the death penalty, the Catholic church does not forbid it.
Although the presenter insisted that her group was trying not to be political, I cannot see it being anything else.
The process of revoking the Life Group’s charter or that of Loyola’s other political groups is near impossible at the moment, particuarly since all representatives approved the charter except one (me).
The only plan of action that seems prudent at this point is to urge your representatives not to finance political organizations when the Allocations Committee meets again.
Remind SGA of its boundaries.
Karl Weis is a political science sophomore and SGA representative.
