Student Government Association prepares for next year

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SGA executive committee for the 2015-16 academic year at the opening of the new DC last fall.

Rebecca Gray, Staff Writer

The results are in and part of the Student Government Association for next year has been elected. Rebecca Gray, a junior majoring in Economics-Finance has been elected as the new Student Body President. Looking to next year, Gray’s goals include increasing transparency between administration and students, creating more resources for clubs and organizations, and building community campus wide.

Also on the Executive Committee, Sierra Naughton has been elected to be the Student Body Vice President and Cameron Akers has been elected to a third term as Student Body Treasurer. The three members look forward to appointing the fourth and final member of the Executive Committee, the Speaker of the Senate, on April 27th.

SGA bonding at Shaker Bowl.
SGA bonding at Shaker Bowl.

As far as class cabinets go, Emily Murray has been elected to be the Senior Class President and will be working alongside Danielle Campbell, newly elected Senior Class Representative. Lacrosse player William Lewis will lead the Junior Class Cabinet as Class President and wrestler Brian LaValley is now the Sophomore Class President.

Newly elected and a first-year Student Government member, LaValley looks forward to participating in the organization.

“I seek to gain a greater understanding of how AIC works as well as contribute to our success as a college,” LaValley stated.

Institutional Representatives are elected representatives with specialized interests and constituencies. Justin Lewis has been newly elected to serve as a Campus Relations representative and Jazmine Baehr is set to serve a second term as Campus Relations Representative.

SGA will begin to appoint students to the remaining vacant positions including Sophomore Class Representative and Secretary, Junior Class Representative and Secretary, and Senior Class Secretary.

Institutional Representative positions such as School of Business, Arts, and Sciences representative, Health Science Representative, Resident Student Representative, Commuter Representative, and International Student Representative will also begin an appointment process. Freshman Class cabinet positions and vacant positions in the fall will go up for election at the beginning of the year.

With a $300,000 yearly operating budget, SGA focuses on projects and initiatives that benefit and better campus life. Some projects they can take credit for include partial funding of the Campus Center Auditorium renovations, full funding and implementation of the new Shuttle Tracker, funding of Campus Recreation’s body pump equipment, the Semi-Formal dance held each year, shuttle service to off-campus career fairs, new computers to be set up in the Writing Center over the summer, and the new lockers that will be installed in the fitness center over Summer break, just to name a few.

In addition to Student Government initiatives, clubs and organizations have the ability to request a budget from the Student Government every year. Events and trips including POWER’s Gun Range Trip, Student Activities Board’s various movie theatre trips, the annual Model Congress, Lion’s Club’s open mic nights were made possible through budgets allocated through Student Government.

SGA is excited and ready to start preparing for next year.

Student Body Treasurer Akers looks forward to strengthening SGA.

“I have witnessed tremendous growth within the organization and have seen this school flourish even if only in ways that may go unnoticed to the students on campus,” Akers said. “With that said, there is still immense room for improvement and I am dedicated to facilitating that improvement and driven to make changes that are fully visible to the student body.”

“We need to engage our student body and inspire them to take an interest in student government so that we may respond to their feedback and enhance the AIC experience for all,” he added.

All students interested in becoming involved with this organization are encouraged to reach out to Rebecca Gray and [email protected] or Zachary Beaver, advisor to the Student Government Association, at [email protected]

SGA carving pumpkin tinplates around campus for last Halloween.
SGA carving pumpkin tinplates around campus for last Halloween.