Student Government Association embraces changes for next year

By T’KEYAH JONES

Staff Writer

Recently, the Student Government Association (SGA), held elections to determine their new cabinet for the upcoming school year. The student body voted online through public polls on OrgSync. SGA also has enacted a new constitution. Many of the newly elected members are looking forward to the positive impacts the new constitution will have and are excited to begin building better relationships with the student body.

Junior, Matt Good, who currently serves as the Director of Communications for SGA, was elected to be SGA President for next year. Good hopes that more students become aware of what SGA can do for them and that students will come to them with any concerns they may have.

“I think that’s the importance [of SGA] , that’s your voice for the school, that’s the number one thing that you can utilize to elicit change on campus,” said Good.

Junior, Jamie McGuire, has served in  the Student Senate as Secretary since her freshman year and will now be serving as the SGA Vice President for the upcoming year.

“The best part of being in student senate and SGA as a whole, is the change that we are able to do. Not a lot of people know about SGA and that’s why we recreated our constitution, trying to uphold that,” said McGuire.

McGuire hopes to have more involvement between SGA and the UMW community and shared her goals for achieving this.

“We aim to have our senators and the student senate and the SGA [working] as a whole, being on the ground of campus and meeting new people, joining other clubs and talking to them about their concerns, being more involved in club events, volunteering and so forth,” said McGuire.

As stated previously, there were big changes made earlier in the year, which resulted in the rewriting of the SGA Constitution. Many new members of the SGA cabinet are looking forward to the effects the newly revised Constitution will have.

“My big goal would definitely be to realize what that’s going to be,” said Good. He added, “I’ll be tasked with making sure it works next year and just figuring out what that’s going to look like, what obstacles are we going to run up against, how do we solve them, what changes are we going to have to make based on the system, growing pains and that kind of stuff.”

“We have just now been handed the reigns of this new constitution and its about upholding that  and making our SGA transparent with the student body so that more students are able to understand SGA and what we can do,” said McGuire.

Junior, Mary Skinner, has served as the chairperson for the committee of Environmental Sustainability since last year, and was elected as next year’s chair of the Ethics and Oversight Committee.

“We recently voted in a new SGA constitution, so my duties will be to help ensure the transition goes smoothly and the new rules and regulations are upheld, especially in the Senate meetings,” said Skinner.

It will be her senior year and she is excited about the impact she will have in her new role and how she will finish out her final year at UMW. Skinner also shared what she thought when it comes to her goals for next year.

“My goals for the upcoming year will be to identify any issues with the constitution and make necessary amendments,” said Skinner.

Sophomore, John Flood, the Student Senate VP for next year is excited for the upcoming year and the changes that it may bring.

“I am looking forward to the new system of government getting under way. It will help ensure quality motions that correspond with student needs, are getting passed and UMW overall will improve as a result,” said Flood.

“Something that I would like to see change on campus are the rules regarding hanging flags on the walls,” Flood said. “Currently we are allowed to hang a flag on our window as long as it is sprayed with fire retardants. However, I believe that this same rule should be extended to apply to hanging flags on walls as well.”

“My overall goal would be to accurately represent student interests,” said Flood.