The Student Government Association has created a suggestion box on their webpage. This will create a new methd for students to contact SGA members about their needs.

Since SGA sent an email to the student body introducing the suggestion box on Feb. 4 a few students have already provided feedback, said SGA President Laura Giles.

“We’ve had some students give us suggestions and tell us what they’d like to see happen on campus since we started the suggestion box,” Giles said. “(However), it has not been an overwhelming response.”

The online suggestion box is a convenient way for students to share their opinions with SGA members if they are unable to contact them in person, she said.

“This is just a different way for us to reach out to students,” Giles said. “Some students aren’t on campus all the time or maybe don’t really know anyone on SGA, so this is a way they can communicate with us.”

Senior Katie Hartman thinks the suggestion box is helpful for students who do not know people in SGA, she said.

“I wouldn’t even know who to talk to about my ideas for campus,” Hartman said. “I don’t know anybody on SGA and I don’t think every other student does.”

Freshman Forum Adviser Maurice Mull thinks the suggestion box requires SGA members to be more accountable to students.

“(The suggestion box) is a more feasible way for students to get their suggestions to us and a way for us to be more accountable to them,” Mull said.

One feature of the suggestion box is that it allows students the option to submit their suggestions anonymously, Giles said.

Anonymous submission is a good idea, said junior Victoria Atkinson.

“Some people may not feel comfortable talking to SGA members about what they think SGA should be doing,” Atkinson said. “Some people may just want to be heard, but not seen to avoid controversy.”

Students also have the option to provide their contact information when submitting their suggestions, Giles said.

“The purpose of getting contact information from students is to allow us to give them feedback and to let them know what work we are doing or have done in regards to what they say they want to see happen on campus,” Giles said.

It also gives SGA the opportunity to keep them updated on any progress made, she said.

Having someone respond to their suggestion makes students feel like their opinion actually matters because someone took the time to respond to them.

It also gives SGA the opportunity to keep them updated on any progress made, she said.

Students can also find the SGA mission, pictures of the senators and their goals for the year on the webpage.

The association has also considered developing a newsletter to share more information with students about what they are working on, Giles said.

“A lot of students don’t know what SGA really is, what our purpose is and what we can do or cannot do,” Giles said, “There are some things we’ve worked on in the past that just couldn’t happen because it wasn’t up to us.”

Students can access the suggestion box at una.edu/sga.