The beginning of a new year and semester dawns the beginning of a new Student Government Association cabinet. On Wednesday, Jan. 18 the new cabinet was inaugurated. Students heard remarks from the new president, met the new cabinet, and were informed of its new vision.
Thomas Daly, the new president of SGA, has now transitioned from his role as Vice President of Student Interests into his presidential role. Daly plans to bring different clubs and associations of Stevens’ together, “…we [SGA] are not the only student assembly that acts to govern and advocate for the rights and interests of students. ” To do this, Daly is planning on creating the “Presidents Council” which will bring together the presidents of various organizations like Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) to the Multicultural Greek Council (MGC). Daly plans to be receptive to student feedback, “This includes attempting to decrease the number of all student emails and surveys students receive in a given semester and having senators and cabinet members play a more active role in listening to and seeking out the feedback of their peers.”
Cat Oesterle, the new Vice President of Operations, plans on using her experience in the SGA to take on a more hands-on role with the committee heads. Her plan is to foster an easy transition system for them by having them document their activities and problems into a sort of “bible” to be a resource to their predecessors. According to Daly, Oesterle has multiple initiatives to improve the efficiency of the SGA, “… enhance the new Student Affairs bill that sets out to have senate liaisons for the different offices of Student Affairs such as Residence Life, and Counseling Services.”
Soindos Abdah, the new Vice President of Student Interests, has an extensive amount of experience in leading student organizations. She founded the Muslim Educational and Cultural Association and was on a number of various executive boards. Abdah is planning on establishing a religious and faith-based subcommittee to represent religious organizations, as well as reevaluating how faculty advisors contribute to a club.
Houston Migdon, the new Vice President of Finance, is in charge of the transition to a new budget committee structure. Daly states the changes, “… removes subcommittee senate representatives and replaces them with members at large.” Migdon wants to collaborate with the administration on creating a student activity fee that will represent the needs of the student body.
Hannah Timm, the new Vice President of Academic Affairs, wants to investigate the “CAL 103/105” structure with hope of revamping the courses. As a whole, Trimm plans to focus on humanities courses such as making foreign language classes more accessible and more appealing. She wants to foster a better relationship between students and professors by increasing respect on both sides. Trimm will use student programs like peer mentorship to improve student academic experiences. Trimm wants to dedicate time to finals scheduling and make sure there is an actual reading day.
Parker Petroff-Rims, the new Secretary, will be implementing a new website for the SGA, to improve the transparency of the SGA to the student population. He wants to define and improve the election procedure so that elections can alway run smoothly.
Now that the SGA cabinet is ready to begin working on their goals, the senate can focus on filling the empty seats.
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