With the Student Government Association preparing to fill more than 25 soon-to-be-vacant offices with elections that end today, next year’s SGA will be in large part a changing of the guard.
SGA president Sam Dike and vice president Jonas Chin took time during Wednesday’s meeting to thank members for their commitment to the University’s student body and discuss what they are doing to make the transition easier for those newcomers.
Dike said he wants the new administration to continue to focus on students’ needs and put them before their own.
‘Our dying goal is to focus solely on students,’ he said. ‘Ask yourself what we can do to serve our students.’
Chin added to Dike’s statement when he said the new administration’s focus should be consistent representation for the student body.
Dike said the transition plan has to keep the new SGA ‘just as productive or more than this administration.’
This plan includes the drafting of an SGA operational manual as well as the continued commitment to the student population. The introduction of an operational manual will help the new administrations not have to start from scratch, Dike said, but rather continue on the path their predecessors paved for them.
Dike gave experienced advice to the potential SGA members present.
‘Don’t cut corners,’ he said. ‘If you cut corners, you are going to end up paying for them in the long run.” ‘ ‘
He said new members need to cherish their job and remember that being a senator is not a right, but it is a responsibility students give to them.
‘Engage (the students). Put their needs before you own, even if that means you are sacrificing some of your own,’ he said. ‘Keep the students first, because that is going to drive everything.’
Chin also imparted advice to the prospective politicians.
‘Start with passion for the University,’ he said. ‘Have passion for representing the students. Represent them and take pride.’
Chin said he wants the senators to remember that they might not always have the answers, but that they should always have the will to search them out.
Despite the few meetings remaining for this administration, senators said they are working hard on tuition legislation and improvements to campus safety.
Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Sen. Kelly Evans said when he leaves SGA, he wants to know he started something different and made a difference, which is why he is promoting Coog Patrol to improve campus security and to work with College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Interim Dean Joseph Pratt to improve college councils.
SGA members said they hope the student body will remember their administration worked hard to keep students’ needs first.
‘We kept students as our primary focus,’ Dike said. ‘We are a true student government.’
