Pinnochio used to be a wooden puppet who no one cared about.

When he started being held accountable for his actions he became a real boy.

Likewise, it’s time for SGA to be held accountable for its actions and time for it to become a real organization.

It’s time to show the student body who’s really in charge of student government. It’s time to pull your own strings.

And if you’re not pulling your own strings, who is?

Last week, Scott “Gepetto” Taylor, SGA’s adviser, was the only one who knew how the mysterious gazebo funds disappeared.

He said the extra SGA money at the end of the 2001 academic year was used to buy computers for the SGA office – not to be placed in the gazebo fund.

There are three major problems with this.

First, why are thousands of dollars being spent on computers for SGA instead of a gazebo? SGA spends enough of students’ money on themselves already.

Secondly, why weren’t students told that money didn’t go to a gazebo after SGA said it would?

Last, and most important, why couldn’t our elected leaders provide an explanation for “Gazebo-Gate?”

“I have absolutely no idea where the money went,” SGA president Jamie Sears told the Herald. Other SGA leaders didn’t know either.

Their ignorance about the missing money is shameful.

Though the Herald’s editorial board whined about the ignorance of using student money to build a gazebo, that’s exactly how it should have been spent if SGA said that was where the money was going. Instead, SGA spent thousands of dollars in computer equipment that practically every Western student will never get to touch.

You could have at least told us.

As students who provide money to fund this puppet show, we deserve honesty, professionalism and most of all, accountability.

We need SGA leaders to cut the strings.

As the leader of an organization, we challenge SGA President Jamie Sears to do her job and know all of the in’s and out’s of SGA.

When students ask questions, Jamie, you should be able to provide real answers. “I don’t know” doesn’t cut it in the real word.

Students already question SGA’s purpose. Gazebo-Gate is just another

reason for them not to believe in you.

And who could blame them?

We want leaders who are knowledgeable and willing to be accountable.

So far, students don’t have it.

And there’s nothing worse than a puppet for a leader.

This editorial represents the majority opinion of the Herald’s 11-member board of student editors.