After interviewing SGA members for other articles this year, we know that one of their goals is to increase their visibility among the campus community.

Following that logic, we decided to poll 100 students to see if they could recognize some of SGA’s members.

Last week members of The Flor-Ala staff approached students at random on campus with a simple question: Can you name these students?

After being shown photos as a hint, participants were asked if they knew the name and position of SGA President Laura Giles, Vice President of Senate Nikki Messer, Vice President of the University Program Council Walter Hartley and Freshman Forum Adviser Maurice Mull.

The process was simple: each time a student recognized an SGA member, the member would receive a tally mark by his or her picture. Each response in the poll was recorded as a tally.

Upon reaching our 100-student quota, we discovered the following results:

15 participants recognized President Laura Giles

17 participants recognized Senate Vice-President Nikki Messer

8 participants recognized University Programming Council Vice-President Walter Hartley

25 participants recognized Freshman Forum Adviser Maurice Mull

These numbers may not be surprising to students, said Lee Mayhall, a junior.

“I think that it’s pretty common for average college students to not know who is in (student) government,” Mayhall said. “I think it’s a problem because most students don’t know what (SGA members) are voting for.”

Giles was interested in the findings of the poll.

“It surprises me, but then again it doesn’t,” Giles said. “I feel like we’ve done a lot to reach out to students but honestly most of them don’t care or pay attention. At the same time, there’s always more things we can do to put ourselves out there.”

The discouraging part of the poll is not that students cannot recognize other students, but that students cannot recognize people in important leadership roles, Hartley said.

“I really don’t even care that they don’t know me, but they need to know who the vice (presidents of SGA are),” Hartley said.

Some students may be able to recognize members of SGA but not know they are affiliated with student government, Mull said.

“I think it’s because we don’t promote ourselves as much as we promote SGA,” Mull said. “It’s about being easier to talk to. I guess what I’m trying to say is that people in SGA don’t brag about their titles. They just work and do what they’re supposed to do.”

Junior Heather Steadman feels that it may be hard for students to be visible as a member of one particular organization.

“I feel like on our campus the people who are involved in things are involved in a lot of things, (meaning the) same 20 something people are running everything,” Steadman said. “I would like more students to be involved in the campus because even if they think it won’t affect anything, it will.”

Because of this, Steadman wishes the polling numbers were higher.

“I think it’s important to know what’s going on with your school and leadership,” Steadman said.

Similarly, Messer suggested the students polled may not be as active in the campus community.

“I wonder if these students were involved at all,” Messer said. “I haven’t seen (visibility) as a huge issue because of the initiative we’ve been taking to get our faces out there. I always send out my senators and the chairs to speak to different (organizations) and the different Greek chapters. I encourage them to speak (with students) in their classrooms.”

Members of SGA are also continuing to increase their visibility on campus through new media strategies, such as a blog and the new online suggestions box, Messer said.

“We’re going to try to utilize that (blog) now for keeping in touch with the students,” Messer said. “I definitely want students to know that we want their feedback. I would like students to know that we’re always open to students suggestions (and) most of our contact information is online.”

Giles expects to visibility to increase during the upcoming SGA election season, when members will campaign for office, she said.

Pictures of SGA’s members are now on a board outside of their office on the first floor of the GUC, across from the game room, Messer said.