Newly elected SGA executive officers decided to have open applications for her executive team in order to increase inclusivity among the student body.
“Feedback that I got frequently on the concourse last week was that SGA sometimes seems like it was too hard to become involved, and if you didn’t do it as a freshman or if you didn’t know somebody who was already involved, it kind of seemed unattainable, and we want SGA to be accessible and representative,” said Mary Margaret Turton, newly elected SGA president.
The top three elected SGA officers, president, vice president and treasurer, work together to choose the rest of the executive team.
This marks the first time that applications are open to all students on AUInvolve.
"I think opening the application is allowing us to think beyond our limited amount of people who we know, so that way it hopefully does open it up for diversity, but of course it's going to be based on the applicants, but I would hope this would give us a better opportunity to really identify those skillsets that the student body needs," Turton said.
Previously, the three officers reached out to the people they saw fit to apply for the positions.
“This is setting the tone for out entire year,” Turton said. “This is the time we really get to define what our goals for SGA look like this year and the people who are going to implement that.”
Applications close Thursday at 5 p.m.
“SGA has always done a really good job at thinking outside of the people we know and really reaching out to a lot of organizations,” Turton said.
The executive team is compromised of chief of staff, executive secretary, executive vice president of initiatives, executive vice president of programs, executive vice president of outreach and executive vice president of communications and marketing.
“There is a value in the students who have been involved in SGA and have really understood processes and the ways to implement those things,” Turton said. “We’re not necessarily trying to bring in all new perspectives. Our executive team already, Carlos and Hunter, have great outside perspectives from outside SGA. We just wanted to make sure that anyone who was interested, willing and that desire to serve had the opportunity to at least be considered.”
When SGA President Dane Block and the other officers selected their executive board, it did not have black representation. However, Block said the lack of representation was not intentional, but was diverse in other ways.
The board has three women, and one member, Jordan Kramer, is gay. The two previous administrations had at least one black member.
These positions are responsible for heading the divisions in SGA cabinet. They also represent SGA at various events.
All candidates selected must be approved by the Student Senate.
Together, the executive officers and executive vice presidents will select the rest of cabinet, which has over 70 members.
All new positions in SGA will be official on March 3.
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