The Chaminade Student Government Association (CSGA) has been around since the late 1990s and has gone through many changes. This semester is no different, with a new structure in place and new faces in the association.
CSGA serves as the voice for students on campus. The association goes over student concerns and is the connecting link between students and administrators. According to its website, the mission of CSGA is to develop interest and support for educational, social, cultural, and recreational programs, and it stimulates communication within the Chaminade community.
This year, a new structure has been recently implemented. Within the student government, there are four main committees: the University Affairs Committee (oversees all the student concerns), Finance Committee (oversees the funds within the government/allocates the money to clubs), Student Life Committee (in charge of all student-related activities), and Communications. As of now, Communications is vacant, but this branch would normally oversee emails, social media, flyers, and other ways to communicate with the student body.
The reason for all the changes to CSGA was to bring President Pamela Oda’s own idea of how CSGA should be organized to ensure the continuity and success of the organization. As the old structure of student government had HOR, CSAB, CSPB, and the Senate, these groups were seen as separate groups from CSGA and also worked in “silos,” Oda said. The groups in student government did not know each other, and there was hardly any interaction or collaboration among the groups. In addition, the senate also noticed that there were few checks and balances throughout the organization as well as the student fees that the student government oversaw.
The goal, according to Oda, was to create a structured and unified system that allowed the organization to work together as a whole to best represent and serve the students of the Chaminade student body.
In addition, a couple noteworthy changes have occurred in the finance committee. Victoria Zembik serves as the new financial vice president, replacing the previous president Tim Johnson. In previous years, you could be on the committee without having other obligations. Now, if you want to serve on the finance committee, you must also be a senator.
So far, Zembik has been happy with the new processes at CSGA.
“I see much improvement,” said the third-year Nursing major. “The changes allow not only me but also my committee members to make sure that the student fees are used correctly and wisely. Depending on the amount requested, it goes through different branches of CSGA. It will always go through the Finance Committee first, work its way to the Executive Board, and sometimes even the Senate. This allows every party involved with CSGA to know what is going on throughout the finance portion of CSGA.”
A second obstacle that CSGA has faced is the turnover of personnel in the director seat. Joseph Granado was the previous director of student engagement as well as the CSGA advisor. Maureen Anderson, who took over the position last year, brought a fresh perspective but is planning to leave Chaminade in the spring semester. Oda noted that Granado had a very loose personality and allowed you to learn from mistakes that you make. Anderson is more of a policy person and is there to guide students in every step of the process.
“Joseph and Maureen have very different styles of how they run things,” said president of the board Pamela Oda.
Aside from the changes that the association has faced, CSGA has been hard at work on creating new opportunities and fixing issues for students this semester. Oda explained that this semester, it has worked on ADA accommodations. The association wants to make it easier for people with disabilities to make their way around campus. Another focal point is parking, which is one of the biggest issues here at Chaminade. The main focal point the association is trying to work on is bringing awareness to student government itself.
“I don’t know if many students actually know about CSGA, so something we’re working on is just bringing awareness to what we do here at Chaminade,” Oda said.
Even thought the new changes toward the student body are moving slowly, Zembik remains optimistic and is excited for what is to come
“In my eyes, the changes have been allowing students to become more involved with student life,” she said. “The implementation of the new structure is rather new and is still a continuous process in which you could see growth in small places. The CSGA Student Life committee is in charge of programs that happen on campus, and they have done a wonderful job with putting programs together. Such as their October Movie Night, Pacific Island Review, and upcoming programs such as their November Giveaway as well as their Christmas party they are planning towards the end of the semester. Through the Finance Committee, the structural changes to allocations are giving the opportunities for Student Organizations to be more responsible towards their funding when it comes to programs they hold. Each club has done a great job of providing more and more events for the student community.”
If students wish to join CSGA, the board holds meetings that are open to the public (dates are available on the website). The meetings are held at the CSGA office in Ching Hall, next to Vi & Paul Loo Student Center. Students can also visit the student engagement website or email [email protected].