The office of Student Leadership Development and Student Judicial Affairs (SLD) wants to put the power in the student’s hands.
And to do that, SLD has decided that there will be no Student Leadership Association (SLA) in 2012.
“We’re actually not going to have what has been called SLA next year at this point,” Chris Bridges, manager of SLD.
The change is aimed at making way for new opportunities for students by bringing back the Student Government Association, advised by Tom Roberts.
“We really want to empower a student government, to be able to determine programming for students as well as how funds are used,” Bridges said.
Bridges and Merri Shearer, a coordinator for SLD, both said that although SLA was successful with some of their events, the organization wasn’t living up to the billing that SLD had envisioned.
“Our office gets dollars from the school to do leadership programming, and so part of that is making sure we’re impacting a fair number of students with that,” Bridges said. “I think we can increase that impact by giving students leadership and ownership over the programs that we’re doing.”
SLD will continue to present four popular events for the student body including: Welcome Week, Breast Cancer Awareness, the Multicultural Health Fair and Spring Fling.
The concept behind the changes coordinates with SLD’s mission to encourage students to take a more active role through the Social Change model of Leadership.
“The leadership office is giving Sinclair students an opportunity to have more of a role in their funding of projects and what projects happen on campus around leadership,” Bridges said.
Both he and Shearer are optimistic that Student Government will be successful.
“It’s entirely up to the student body at Sinclair and what the student body wants,” Bridges said. “I believe anytime you can turn leadership and decision making abilities over to the students you are better off.”
For more information about the changes impending for SLD visit the office of Student Leadership and Development and Student Judicial Affairs in Building 8025. Students can also email their questions to Bridges or Shearer at christopher.brid1871@sinclair.edu or merri.shearer@sinclair.edu.