It used to take 30 students to put on Freshman Formal. Now the Students’ Association is trying to do it with just one freshman.

Freshman Action Council, a group of freshmen charged with planning events for freshmen, was discontinued by the Office of Student Life in the fall. FAC duties were given to the SA freshmen class officers this year. But how can three officers -president, vice president and treasurer -effectively provide activities for 1,000 freshmen?

Since freshmen can’t pledge, they need another way to participate in the Homecoming parade and have a Christmas social and spring formal. The FAC provided that for the last few years and gave freshmen the chance to test their organizational skills among their own peers. When FAC was discontinued, Student Life thought freshmen could still get that opportunity by serving on the ACU Cabinet, formerly the Campus Activities Board. However, most of the Cabinet student workers are upperclassmen and the Cabinet didn’t plan any events for just freshmen.

Freshman Action Council should be reinstated next year. Even if it has less than 30 members, it could still provide a better experience for freshmen than the SA officers can do alone.

A large council allows for multiple voices to be heard. Former FAC members represented different groups as some went on to pledge social clubs while others didn’t. If things went wrong, freshmen couldn’t point the blame at one person because an entire group was behind the different events.

Many freshmen might not feel comfortable jumping into leadership in SA, or even OMA groups or World’s Backyard etc. They need a place where they can lead other freshmen without the pressure of planning events for upperclassmen.

FAC also allows students to participate who wouldn’t necessarily want to be in SA. SA usually attracts political science majors or those who want to be active in a political atmosphere. SA officers have to balance bills and voting while planning events at the same time. Few people want to deal with the politics. But FAC only handled events, so freshmen who didn’t want the politics of SA had a chance to simply plan events.

Student Life needs to reconsider the purpose of freshmen activities and freshmen SA officers. Freshmen need to be represented in SA, but they also need to be united as a class before the split up into clubs and other groups sophomore year. FAC provides a place where freshmen can unite, learn to lead and of course, dress fancy and dance the Nae Nae or whatever kids do these days.