You've already heard from Liz Westbrook about the workings of the Senate, from Theresa Bowman about coordinating a sense of community among first year students and incorporating them into our community, and from Caroline Pham about bringing the outside world into the law school through alumni relations and community service.  Still, I'd bet that most students think of the SBA as the party planners, putting on bar reviews, the Halloween party, Barrister's Ball, and the annual ski trip.  (Thanks in all parts to Phil and the rest of the Programming Committee who coordinate such great events).  However, I think what largely goes unnoticed is the overall goal of the SBA: creating a better law school, and life-experience for our fellow students.

It's easy to interpret the various parties that the SBA throws as something to do on your Thursday night, but the real reason the SBA hosts social events is to create a bond among the students.   Life is a little easier when you have someone who knows what you're going through.  Knowing that not all bonds are forged over a beer, the SBA Minority Affairs Committee coordinates networking events like the Minority Students' Reception while the Charter Committee gets new student organizations up and running, like the newly independent Student Hurricane Network.  All in the attempt to help you make connections and to have law school be more than showing up to class.  You can get a JD or LLM almost anywhere, but not all schools help you along the way.

In fact, a lot of what the SBA does is coordinate services that make your daily law school life more enjoyable (and as easy going as law school can be).  The Student Services Committee makes sure that snacks are put out in the hard lounge before finals to keep you going strong and coordinates sales for business cards, lockers, and used books for your convenience.

Admittedly, things could be better.  Issues large and small are ever present.  Financial aid disbursements could be made via direct deposit, class registration could be coordinated better so as to give student's more than a few days to sign up, classes could be more conducive to day and night students' schedules, etcetera.  Most of these issues don't go unnoticed by the SBA and there are people working on remedies with the law school and university administrations.

Nevertheless, the SBA needs more than its appointees in order to function properly.  You, the student, need to voice your opinion on what you like and what you don't.  Suggestions are more than appreciated; they are necessary.  The SBA cannot fight for the student voice if it doesn't know what the student's are saying.  Our law school administration cares greatly what student's think, more so than a lot of other school administrations.  Let's take that opportunity to make our careers here exceptional.  No one wants to pay $40,000 for mediocrity.

(Please contact the SBA with comments and suggestions at sba@law.gwu.edu)