The Student Association is Oswego State’s student-run governing body tasked with bringing issues from the student body to the administration.

Since October 2011, the organization has utilized a website at oswegosa.org. However, the information on this website is scarce and the most recent meeting information dates back to April 24, 2012.

Matt Wood, a senior public justice major, said that if he were to be interested in SA he would use a Google search to find out more information. This Google search shows the out-of-date SA website as a top result.

Work on the SA website has been in discussion for about a year. Smith says Kristofer Brandow, a former Oswego State student, originally created the SA website using Drupal, an open source content management platform. SA sought Brandow to update the site, but because Brandow had asked for more money this time, Smith found a different option.

“When I took office I found out that we were already purchasing Laker Life, [but I] knew nothing about it,” Smith said. “So here we are with this new website, Laker Life, it’s almost completely finished and we started looking into it.”

This is when Smith found out it would be more cost effective for the student body to use Laker Life, an online community for registered students of Oswego State.

“So where it stands now is that it would be more cost effective, meaning we use less student money, to use Laker Life which our office didn’t pay for,” Smith said.

The lack of updated documents for students will be changed once the new page has been set up.

“We can hold our documents there, we can post about our general meetings there, we can post about events we’re going to have because my directors are going to be having events this year,” Smith said.

Smith said that Vice President Ben June is currently working on updating SA’s code from last year. He added that once that is complete all important documents (codes, bylaws and the constitution) will be put on the Laker Life website.

According to Smith, there are two modules that will be installed to the new website. One is for clubs and organizations to manage their financial requirements with SA and the other is for students to vote for SA elections. The latter will be purchased in the spring semester. This means another improvement is coming for financial filings with SA.

“Last year with our website we had the budgeting thing that Brandow created for us. It did not go over very well. I mean he built it in a month and a half and it worked at first, crashed, was a disaster,” Smith said.

Taylor Campbell, a sophomore public justice major, said she does not know how to become involved with SA.

“We have senators?” Campbell asked. However, she did know that SA funds clubs and organizations.

As for Wood, the senior knew very little about SA.

“I know they pay for activities,” Wood said. “I don’t even know what SA stands for. I don’t know what SA is.”

Smith said his public relations director, Renee Ricketts, will be taking care of reaching students through “Facebook, our Twitter and I guess we have an Instagram, so that’s fantastic.”

Smith said he does not have a lot of big projects to work on so his main focus will be pushing for more student involvement.

Seamus Lyman
News Editor
slyman@oswegonian.com