From Sept. 7 to Sept. 21, 2022, Student Government Association (SGA) has started meeting at their normally scheduled time on Wednesdays at 11 a.m. SGA officers this semester are Jordi Oliver, Paul Dorman, Tess Patton, Marylee Orman, Morgan Greuel, Toby Winans and Student Trustee Maggie Kelly. SGA has covered a multitude of affairs such as, voting for Freshman delegates, electing them, an Alumni plaque and creating subcommittees, creating or revamping a forum for student concerns, deciding on a motto and getting T-shirts for the new year. 

The first couple of meetings were about making decisions for the new semester. For instance, they agreed on dates for a meeting with freshmen delegates once elected and decided on volunteer opportunities such as; Special Olympics Family Festival (SOFF), One Stop Community Christmas, the blood drives throughout the semester and Student Activity Board weekly events. The motto for SGA this semester was also decided, which is, “To Serve + Stand for Students.”

Next was voting for freshmen delegates which went very well, and all eight positions were elected. To help promote voting, on Sept. 15, SGA members handed out cookies at Laker Point to encourage students to vote for the newly elected delegates. On Sept. 14, Matt Gillenwater and Cade Lawless from Information Systems and Services (ISS) were guest speakers in the meeting to help demonstrate and hear concerns from officers about the in-progress voting system. ISS is working with SGA to create an online forum to vote for SGA members, officers and delegates through the hub. The petition with the 20 signatures, application and more is online and secured by knowing whether the applicant is a registered student or not. 

Student concerns are a big concern of SGA this year, and creating both an online and physical forum for them has been a big talking point in past meetings. SGA is setting up a concern box in the Northeast building on campus. There will also be some type of survey on the Laker Hub so students can put their concerns and things they want to see this year through an online forum. 

The meeting on Sept. 21 was the first with the Freshman delegates, and this meeting was about introducing the new members and giving an introduction to SGA.