Dear Student Body,

AIC’s Student Government Association (SGA) began the year with unexpected challenges; however, our representatives have worked diligently to overcome them while still accomplishing goals and expanding their reach. SGA worked through budgeting obstacles, approved and recognized new student organizations, and various members have helped expand its reach across campus. Consisting of nearly 30 student representatives currently, SGA is transitioning to a new way of holding meetings in an attempt to increase participation among everyone.

Many offices and departments across campus experienced a budget cut at the beginning of the year, Student Government was not exempt. After experiencing a cut of 47.5% of our operational budget, members began strategizing and brainstorming ways to continue to make an impact while exercising an increase in fiscal responsibility and creative approaches. A policy that was implemented by SGA in an effort to increase the amount of programming opportunities afforded created a cost limit that an off-campus program could cost per person before the sponsoring Registered Student Organization had to earn back a percentage of those funds in the form of ticket sales. This new policy has made it possible to help fund more programs while still maintaining the more costly, but higher impact, programs. Student organizations recognized by SGA are currently working on more creative fundraising ideas as well as collaboration amongst the groups to accomplish more with less.

SGA has and continues to support the development of the new clubs on campus and the support of established clubs on campus. The Student Government Association recognized three new student organizations this fall. By recognizing an organization, the Student Government is voting on and approving the mission, vision, and goals of the organization to determine that it is a beneficial addition to student life. Being recognized by SGA means that the student organization can request a budget from SGA through the budget allocation process.

The first organization that SGA formally recognized was Student Athlete Advisory Council (more commonly known as SAAC). SAAC is the governing body and voice on campus for student athlete concerns and ideas. SAAC has been integral in the promotion of many athletic events this semester and though their establishing of and support of Swarm, a sub-committee of SAAC, the student body can be confident that promotion and attendance of athletic events will only increase.

The second organization that was recognized is called AIC TROOP Design. This organization is primarily made up of students majoring in or with an interest in Communications. They are an important resource for organizations struggling to create logos, posters, and other forms of advertising. They are currently working on producing their first film.

SGA also recognized the new Sport Management club. This club has a focus on networking and developing skills in the Sports industry. This semester, they hosted an athletic equipment drive to collect equipment to donate.

Student Government representatives have taken on many projects this semester. To begin and highlight just a few of them, I have begun serving as the Student Representative to the Board of Trustees. I attended the Trustee meeting in October and will be in attendance at both meetings in the Spring Semester.

Sierra Naughton, Student Body Vice President, developed a presence on social media for SGA, specifically on Instagram and Twitter. Naughton has plans to continue improving on these accounts so that they can become a key tool in communicating about SGA’s impact on campus. If you are familiar with the online Mannequin Challenge, be sure to visit @aic_sga on Instagram to see our attempt and see if you can recognize any familiar faces.

Marisa Najarian, Senior Class Secretary, along with myself have successfully completed a survey of students on campus and their opinions on smoking on campus. The results were that nearly 70% of students think that there needs to be some sort of change on campus with smoking policy with a large majority of those students believing that AIC must have better designated smoking areas. Najarian and Gray are in the process of preparing the information to give to administration and campus services.

Senior Class President Danielle Campbell, Marisa Najarian, Sophomore Class President Jonny Murray, and Sophomore Class Representative Malik Webb will be participating in the Campus Dining committee to help improve dining on campus for both student athletes and students who have dietary restrictions.

School of Health Science representatives, Caroline Truesdell and Ally Pothier, have been working with Health Science related student organizations to make sure that they are properly represented. Residential Representative, Bridget Grim, has been doing the same with Resident Hall Council.

School of Business, Arts, and Sciences Representatives, Lindsey Richmond and Scott Smith both attended the Business, Arts, and Sciences department chair meeting. They are putting efforts towards improving communication between students and professors as well as getting a better understanding of how the department works.

I have been working closely with Samantha Goldaper, Senior Class Representative, and Lindsey Richmond in preparations for our annual Spring Semi-Formal. The theme that was chosen through Fall elections was “A Night in Vegas.”

Looking towards next semester, SGA will be transitioning from a weekly Senate meeting schedule to a bi-weekly schedule. The plan in place for the off weeks are smaller committee style meetings. This plan is in an effort to increase collaboration, communication, and productivity. This will make each senate meeting more productive and have more meaning and will ensure that representatives have the time scheduled to work on projects and campus improvement efforts.

Next semester, our meetings will be advertised on the digital display signs, on bulletin boards, and on social media. We encourage all students to attend to voice concerns and give us ideas of projects to take on. The progress and activities I have listed above do not form an exhaustive list of what SGA has been working on and we plan to continue to provide updates to the Student Body on progress in an effort to maintain and promote transparency.

I wish the best of luck to everyone on campus on their finals and other end of semester duties, it can definitely be a stressful time but we can all look forward to the holidays and a nice winter break! Go Yellow Jackets!

On behalf of the Student Government Association,

Rebecca Gray ‘17

Student Body President, American International College Student Government Association