Student Government Association hopes to unify all that is Auburn through its newest cabinet position.
Wesley Clendinen, sophomore in pre-veterinary medicine, was appointed Friday to the position of assistant vice president of outreach.
"Essentially, AVP of outreach is going to be going out to different governing bodies on campus--IFC, Panhellenic, ROTC, RHA, Student Athlete Commission--and I'm going to be procuring liaisons from them to come meet with me up in the SGA office," Clendinen said. "Preferably, those liaisons will be executive officers from the different programs."
Clendinen said some campus organizations don't realize the ways they can work with and contact SGA.
"Obviously there's a need for communication between the different groups and governing bodies on campus," Clendinen said. "There have been some links of communication, but in a lot of ways it's been spread out. It's almost like a grid, with SGA in the center and all those other groups moving around it. What this is going to do is bring all those groups to the middle and centralize everything."
The Student Athlete Advisory Committee, which consists of the leaders of athletic teams who want to be involved in the community, is one of the organizations that will coordinate with Clendinen.
"In years past, SAAC hasn't really been involved with SGA," said Blanche Alverson, junior in biomedical sciences and forward on the women's basketball team. "This new cabinet position is going to be communicating more with athletes as well as other organizations on campus, trying to be the liaison between the two to get more involvement between groups on campus and to get all the students on the same page."
Collier Tynes, incoming SGA chief of staff, said Auburn was in need of a way to link the officers of different governing bodies together.
"Not only are they going to tell each other about events that are coming up so that we can better schedule and collaborate with each other, but they're also going to talk about different issues going on campus," Tynes said. "I'm really excited because this is going to be a great way for SGA to say, 'Hey, XYZ bill is coming up in senate, what do y'all think about it?' That way we get a better view of student opinions from other groups."
Even though this is the first year this position has existed, Tynes said the response was overwhelmingly positive.
"Judging by how many people applied for this position, people are really excited about it," she said. "It was one of the most competitive positions to get on cabinet this year because so many people applied for it."
Clendinen said this position will give student representatives more sway when they go before the administration.
"Not only is it going to empower those groups on campus, but when we go to Dr. Gouge or Dr. Carry with something we want done on campus, we can say, 'This is what we think,'" Clendinen said. "And rather than 'we' just being the SGA, 'we' will stand for the entire student body and every aspect of campus."
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