Several weeks ago, the College of Wooster Student Government Association held elections for the 2010 calendar year, filling the SGA seats with the students who will be representing the student body.
Abbey Smanik, í11 will be leading the Student Government Association this year as President, and Hannah Haas, í12 will be serving as Vice President. In the other Cabinet seats are Leah Inglis í11 as secretary of Student Affairs, John McGovern í12 as Secretary of Special Services for the spring semester and Josh Koch í12 for the fall semester, Estancia Cota í12 as Secretary of Cultural Affairs and Diversity, myself as secretary of Academic Affairs and David Simpson í12 as Treasurer.
Filling the Senate seats for each class include Molly O’Conor í11, Zachery Matesich í11, Beth Bemis í12, Hannah Reiser í12, Baba Badji í13, Gus Fuguitt í13, Justin Kalinay í13, Joshua Lewis í13, Kenneth Perry Jr. í13, and Stephen Crozier† ë13.
The students recently elected to serve on SGA are excited to begin this new year. Unfortunately, the majority of the Wooster student body does not understand what SGA does on this campus. One of the most important goals of the newly elected Student Government Association is to increase understanding and to have a larger presence in the college community.
First, SGA brings two very important services to the Wooster campus each year. SGA operates the airport shuttles for students during every break, and also coordinates the end of the year storage in Holden.
Second, SGA is an important sponsor of numerous events on campus, including the recent Africa Night, as well as bringing its own events to the campus, such as the free coffee and cookie event in the library during finals week last semester.
A large part of SGAís work is behind the scenes. SGA serves as a consultant to many different organizations and parts of the administration on campus, giving a student opinion on different aspects of Wooster. SGA also allocates all of the funding for academic and non-categorized student organizations.
However, the most important function of SGA is to serve the students. SGAís main purpose is to be an outlet for the concerns, questions and ideas of the student body at large, and it is in this function that SGA is most underutilized. SGA works every year to make changes that are important to students, be they large or small.
Some of SGAís contributions to campus include bringing more gluten-free foods to Lowry, getting the nutrition facts for all of the desserts published, and launching the ìRespect Your Momís” campaign last year to address and help correct the problem of theft at Momís Truck Stop.
However, these and other changes can only be made if students bring their needs to SGAís attention. SGA meetings are held every Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Babcock Dining Room, and they are always open to all students, not only those serving as members of SGA.
In this upcoming year, SGA wants to truly become the voice of Wooster students and it hopes that students will begin to utilize the organization that exists solely to serve them. SGA wants to more fully represent the† student body.
There are still open seats on SGA, so if you are interested in making changes here on campus and representing your fellow students, email a letter of intent to Abbey Smanik before 5 p.m. on Wednesday at asmanik11@wooster.edu and plan to attend the next SGA meeting.
Emily Tarr í11 is the secretary of Academic Affairs for SGA and can be reached for comment at ETarr11@wooster.edu