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A spirit that is not afraid

EDITORIAL: Huntley made it happen.

Ada Ruth Huntley, junior in global studies, is running for SGA president.
Ada Ruth Huntley, junior in global studies, is running for SGA president.

At the beginning of 2020, Ada Ruth Huntley made history by becoming the first Black woman to be elected Auburn's SGA president. This was certainly a surprise considering what we all know about Auburn, but the surprises didn’t stop there. About a month after transitioning to take on her role, the University was forced to shut down because of the looming threat of COVID-19. 

Huntley now takes her place in history again, as the first SGA president to hold office during COVID-19, but she wasn’t immune to the thoughts we’ve all had during the past year: this isn’t fair. 

It’s hard to stay motivated — and to keep other people motivated — when you’ve finally got something you worked so hard for, and it’s nothing like how you envisioned. 

“I thought, this was not the job I signed up for,” Huntley said. “But then, finally, I pulled up my big girl pants and said, no, this is the job you signed up for; you signed up to serve the student body.” 

And so, Huntley made it happen. 

Of course, she didn’t get everything done that was promised on her platform, but who could? Becoming SGA president — the representative of over 30,000 voices — is not an easy task in a year not ravaged by a pandemic, and the major resurgence of a social justice movement.

Here is what she and her team got done. 

First, they were tasked with encouraging the student body to social distance, wear their masks and participate in sentinel testing. They also solicited feedback whenever they could from students transitioning to online learning and got this valuable information back to senior administration. And then after that, dealing with the highly publicized death of George Floyd in May and the protests that followed as not only a Black woman, but also as the SGA president. As president, she put out a statement right in the heat of everything. 

“It was something we felt was important that Black students knew that they were seen and heard, and we knew exactly how they were feeling, because I was feeling all the things right alongside everybody else,” Huntley said. 

The resurgence of Black Lives Matter, and the appearance of the Black At Auburn Instagram page in the summer did help Huntley achieve things that may not have gotten any attention otherwise. For example, Huntley was not only able to be on the Presidential Task Force, but also went through hours of cultural competency training, and was able to advocate for that to be implemented not only in student organizations but to administration and staff. 

Huntley also established a mental health task force, something she was really passionate about as someone who has mental health issues. 

“Right now, we are in the process of finalizing the recommendations for that group, and getting ready to present those to senior administration across campus,” Huntley said. 

Additionally, Huntley established a director of basic needs. 

“This is someone who assesses needs of the student body with regard to hunger and food insecurity and homelessness, and comes up with action plans that we as SGA can do in response to those issues,” Huntley said. 

This year they even started the first ever hunger awareness week. Huntley also conceived the idea of the nutrition resource center in Lupton Hall that will replace AU Smokehouse and Fresh on the Plains. 

Student senate was able to secure an on-campus polling place that will be utilized in the next election season. Additionally, they were able to relaunch a new Auburn Answers and SGA site that would make it easier for students to share feedback. Huntley and her team were also able to establish a work group to start evaluating the potential of a foreign language exchange program. 

“It’s a way of connecting native speakers of a language to people who speak that language to [those] who are taking classes to learn that language,” Huntley said. “That’s not something that will be done in my term, but we hope the next SGA president and the team take on that challenge.” 

Truthfully, many of the things SGA presidents do for the student body in their term go unseen until it takes effect much later, and this was very true for Huntley’s term. The things that could have been implemented would have been to an empty campus. 

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It’s important to note that the title Huntley held was itself an accomplishment and worthy of praise as a Black woman in Auburn. Huntley herself said that just as it was hard to be Black in America, it’s hard to be Black in Auburn, so her becoming SGA president was a feat. 

Huntley describes the night after she made history, and BSU was holding its annual Soul Food Bazaar to celebrate Black history month. She went, catching up with friends and mingling after a week of campaigning. 

“Someone stopped me and was like, ‘Hey, Ada, you know there’s a shirt back there with your name on it right?’” Huntley said. “And I was like, 'there is no way there’s a shirt back there with my name on it,' and I go back there and look at the shirts the vendors are selling and spoke with them, and there's a shirt that says ‘My SGA President is Black’, and when I tell you I went to my car and bawled.” 

Huntley also mentioned that she was happy to see all of the people of color running in this election.

“Seeing all of the people of color running, and really to see anyone running, because we struggled for so many years just getting people to run,” Huntley said. “I just hope that something that I’ve done, or said, or just being here inspired them to want to take that step themselves.”  

Despite the cards they were dealt, Huntley and her team did what they could to serve the student body. That's hard in a normal year, it was nearly impossible this past year. 

Nevertheless, Huntley made it happen. For that, we say: thank you. 


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