The StudentGovernment Association’s (SGA) elections are fast approaching, and the Senate’s current Executive Board is set to undergo quite a transformation.
The student body will be able to cast their votes for the SGA Executive Board, senators and Honor Board and Conduct Board representatives via CollegiateLink from Wednesday, April 9 at midnight to Friday, April 11.
SGA President Donald Knight will graduate this May after a year of holding his position. Juniors Haley Vest and Queen Burrell are running for president and will debate in front of the student body on April 9 at 8 p.m. in the Blackwell Ballroom. This will be the first SGA presidential debate in two years, as Knight ran unopposed for president in 2012.
Vest, a biology major with a health/biomedicalconcentration, currently serves as an executive senator and has been on the Senate for two years. Regarding her course of action if elected president, Vest said she has “great ideas on how we can improve the SGA, especially in terms of efficiency and bringing up the issues that matter the most to students.”
While Vest said she would continue to reach out to students who are well- represented within the SGA, she would also like to meet the needs of students who are underrepresented on the Senate. She cited student athletes as an example because their active schedules do not often permit them free time in which to represent themselves within the SGA.
“I am ready to dedicate my full attention to the position, which is incredibly important because it is such a huge role,” added Vest.
Burrell, a political science major, is currently SGA treasurer and served as class president during her freshman and sophomore years. She said she is ready to take on the role of president.
“I feel like I have grown and developed the skills that are needed for this leadership position,” Burrell added.
If elected, Burrell would like to implement programs that “move SGA further.” Among Burrell’s proposed solutions are programs that raise awareness of the resources students have on campus and ones that show the SGA’s support of organizations on campus.
Vice President Brian Reid is graduating this May as well. Junior Steven Sommer, who currently serves as SGA secretary, is the unopposed candidate for vice president.
Sommer, a communication studies major with a concentration in mass media, has been part of the SGA for a total of two years. Sommer feels prepared to take on a leadership role that includes, in the case of the president’s absence, performing the president’s duties at meetings.
Sommer cited his experience in multiple clubs and organizations on campus as a factor that has helped him gain “a good grasp of campus as whole.” He also believes he is prepared to delegate Senate committees and perform the “internal work” that the role of vice president requires.
“I feel like I’m somebody who’s a people person and can really see the strengths and weaknesses in other people, so I feel like I’d be able to best place the most appropriate people in the right fields to be able to make the student government as efficient as possible.”
Alex Julian, a junior business major with a concentration in marketing, is the unopposed candidate for treasurer. He has served on the SGA as a senator for one year.
“I want to help with the allocation of funds for meaningful purposes ... and help people also learn how to get allocations for their organization and the process you have to go through for that,” Julian said.
Julian is currently the treasurer for Theta Chi fraternity. He said he already works with a fairly large budget in his role. Julian added that he views himself as a “very business savvy person” with the prior experience to effectively help allocate the SGA’s budget.
SGA Historian Paige Rollins, a sophomore communication studies major with a concentration in organizational communication, is running unopposed to continue in her current role. She has served on the SGA for one year.
“I’m really excited because we kind of have a good system going on right now, so hopefully I can carry that on and get some more people on campus doing cool clubs,” Rollins
said. Part of being historian is bringing forward club and organization constitutions to the Senate for approval. Rollins said she plans to help form some sort of system to contact Sports Club Council to make the process of sports clubs coming on campus more streamlined.
“I’m really passionate about getting people involved and seeing the best potential in other people, so I think it’d be nice to help people really achieve their goals — and it’s rewarding for me as well,” Rollins added.
Junior Class President Kendall Lofton is the unopposed candidate for secretary. She has been part of the SGA for two years and feels that her past experience in secretarial positions has helped prepare her for this role, as she would “know what to expect.”
Lofton cited organization, stress and time management as some of her strongest leadership qualities.
The secretarial candidate wants to become more involved with the SGA and also feels that she “can more relay the students’ voices to be heard as secretary.”
According to Reid, who is also the chair of the Recruitment/Elections Committee, more than 60 students are running for positions on the Senate, Honor Board and Conduct Board.
Students can attend SGA meetings every Tuesday at 3:45 p.m. in the BC rooms of Lankford Student Union to see the Senate in session.
