Vice President
Junior Katie Maxwell said she and multiple other Student Government Association (SGA) executive board candidates want to push student advocacy in SGA.
“We’ve moved away from being a student bank and we’ve focused more on student advocacy, which is the entire point of student government,” Maxwell said.
She said acting as a bank shouldn’t be SGA’s main focus.
As vice president, Maxwell wants to focus on class cancellation communication.
Maxwell is the chair of SGA’s class cancellation committee, which was formed after a student mentioned poor communication regarding canceled class notifications at Delegates’ Agenda last month.
Maxwell said the committee has been looking into the student’s specific situation, as well as a solution for future students. The committee is pushing for a university-wide policy that would require the university to notify students of a class cancellation two weeks before the start of class.
Maxwell also wants to focus on diversity on campus. She said the diversity summit was a good first step, but Webster needs to keep moving forward.
Maxwell said she wants to see SGA hold more forums — much like the financial aid forum SGA held last month.
Maxwell is currently SGA’s student organization liaison. She has been on SGA for two years.
—Reporting by Megan Favignano.
Sergeant-at-arms
As Student Government Association (SGA) sergeant-at-arms, Chris Hawk ensures meetings go smoothly, procedures are followed, the constitution is upheld and professional conduct is had. Hawk is running unopposed for his re-election.
“As a candidate going for re-election, and as a business student, I’m grateful no one is running against me,” Hawk said. “As a student, I weep. I want more involvement at all levels, but that really does start from within. And that’s something we can keep on working on for the future.”
Hawk believes adding paid SGA positions to the equation would add a higher level of participation and accountability.
“It will make it easier for us to make sure the blade doesn’t get dulled,” Hawk said. “It absolutely will attract more people to (SGA).”
Hawk would like to see SGA tackle long-term goals, but is concerned those goals will not be met if Michael Grosch, current SGA president, is not re-elected.
“Really, it frightens me,” Hawk said. “And I do legitimately lose sleep over the fact that our government will just go back to doing something crappy, because that means I’ve invested two semesters of my life into something that’s pointless. Which is why I’m passionate about it, which is why I care about it, which is why I’m voting for Michael Grosch.”
—Reporting by Sheren Khalel.
Student organization liaison
Freshman Alexander Bonney said the student organization liaison position is still fairly new — it was created last school year. Bonney said the position is still “very much undefined.”
He said the position’s goal is to “increase communication between SGA (Student Government Association) and student organizations.”
With the position, Bonney wants to increase visitors to the involved.webster.edu website. If Webster moves forward with the smartphone application presented at Delegates’ Agenda, Bonney said the app would drive traffic to Involved.
Another possibility to increase traffic on Involved, Bonney said, is to incorporate Involved with Connections.
To work towards integrating Involved and Connections, Bonney plans to work closely with the director of communications on information technology development. Currently, no one is running for director of communications. If no one is selected by fall, Bonney said he will focus on his other goals first. If no one fills that position next school year, he said one solution may be creating an ad hoc committee to accomplish that goal.
Bonney, like several other candidates, is pushing for SGA to be more focused on student advocacy.
“The student bank side should not be the face of SGA,” Bonney said.
Bonney wants to encourage more co-programming to further increase collaboration and communication between clubs.
—Reporting by Megan Favignano.
Secretary
Nicole Griffin, freshman education major, said she would bring a “calendar” to the position of secretary for Student Government Association (SGA).
“I’ve been working on calendars … big calendars,” Griffin said.
Griffin’s calendar would have office hours and meetings of every SGA representative. Griffin would like to display this calendar in the University Center. Its purpose would be to keep students updated so they know what their representatives are doing for them.
Griffin’s other goal as secretary is to ensure SGA members are always accessible. She proposes that someone should be in the SGA office from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every school day.
Griffin said, as a whole, she feels SGA has failed this past year in terms of their organization, which she said leads to being more effective student advocates.
In her time as senator, Griffin said she has helped advocate for her fellow students, and went above and beyond a “student bank” by helping expand online classes for education majors. Griffin said the issue of the lack of online classes came up when students complained about their inability to study abroad while still graduating on time.
—Reporting by Gabe Burns.
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