This article was written by Stephanie Searing and Jay Thakkar.
The newly elected Student Government Association (SGA) President Gabriella Poska and Vice President of Operations (VPO) Paulina Georgoutsos have appointed their Cabinet members. The new Cabinet includes Charles Beall, Vice President of Finance (VPF), Eden Luvishis, Vice President of Academic Affairs (VPAA), Alexander Stanczak, Vice President of Student Interest (VPSI), and Nicholas Housel, Secretary.
In an interview with Beall about his new position, he stated that he ran for the position because he “wants to serve the best interests of orgs and work with people” and he is “excited to work with the Cabinet and Senate.” For this semester, Beall is planning to create a financial report for student organizations in order to foster better communication, transparency, and accountability between the SGA and student organizations. Additionally, more related events will hopefully help to “put a face to the SGA.” In order to support student organizations’ financial needs, Beall hopes to streamline different organizations’ event planning by sharing the SGA financial policies, and potentially changing certain policies to make the financial side of planning less stressful for student organizations. Finally, Beall hopes to keep the student body more informed and involved with SGA’s budgeting and finance through their new social media campaign, and by working with the Senate and Cabinet to increase involvement and awareness of the SGA through holding events. In addition, Beall mentioned that if anyone has questions about the financial policies, students can contact him by email at cbeall@stevens.edu.
The VPAA, Eden Luvishis, is currently working on ensuring students have access to both in-person and online tutoring, among other initiatives. In an email interview, when asked about the initiatives, she replied, “I am also working on extending our add/drop deadline to February 6, ensuring that we have a chance to experience classes in-person before deciding whether or not to drop them. Additionally, I am hoping to develop a platform where students can plug in their AP credits and desired majors/minors and see a sample study plan that they can follow to complete these programs.”
Luvishis’ passion for academic affairs was her primary motivation for being the VPAA ever since she joined the SGA in the first semester of freshman year. She has served on the committee of Academic Affairs for six semesters and was appointed as the chair of the committee in her second year. As most of her Stevens experience is centered around academics, she realized she wanted to dedicate more time to improving other students’ academic experience at Stevens.
According to Luvishis, the biggest academic concern for students stems from a lack of understanding about resources. She hopes that her initiatives will increase transparency and help students gain more clarity in general. She further added, “Specifically, students often don’t know who to reach out to for help or how to utilize the resources that are available to them on campus.”
To supplement the topic of communications with administrations she said, “I regularly meet with Deans, the Provost’s office, and faculty to ensure that students’ concerns are heard and resolved as quickly as possible.”
In an email interview with Alex Stanczak, VPSI, he said that he ran for the position because “there is no better way to learn about something than working directly with it.” He is very passionate about student government and is looking forward to his term. Some initiatives he is planning for this semester include “an updated directory of all campus organizations” and “working with the committee on student interests to stay up to date on all new organization” processes and “participation in the committee itself.” The current Committee on Student Interests (CSI) “has 5 out of 11 subcommittee heads, however, [they] are looking to bring that number up.”
In order to develop a closer relationship with student organizations and improve support for them, Stanczak plans on attending organizational meetings and communicating with their leaders either in person, on Xoom, or through emails in order to assist them whenever they need. Additionally, Stanczak plans to maintain open lines of communication between the SGA, student organizations, and administration by expressing student concerns. Stanczak believes that “communication is key when it comes to successfully running an organization.”
The Secretary of SGA, Nicholas Housel, aims to work on the organization of the SGA and archiving documents from previous and ongoing events at Stevens. He says, “Library archiving is essentially documenting […] that way, we better understand our history and the stories of previous students.” His motivation for running for Secretary is his previous experience as the Secretary for the Health Professions Club and wanting to be more involved in the student government. Moreover, he plans to keep the governing documents updated to their latest edition and accessible on DuckLink. In the interview, Housel also spoke about his focus by stating, “My primary focus as Secretary will be maintaining the SGA’s organization and transparency, enabling everyone to understand what the SGA is doing for the Stevens community.”
Overall, the new SGA Cabinet expressed they are committed to transparency and fostering a better relationship between student organizations and the SGA. To contact the SGA, students can follow @stevens_sga on Instagram or email sga@stevens.edu.
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