After taking the reins from Catalyst in March, the Student Government Association executive slate Alliance is slowly making progress toward its overall platform points, which include improving the university's Multicultural Center, reaching out to the student body and fixing the way that SGA operates.
Winning 57 percent of the vote in the February election, the slate that carried the least amount of SGA experience was suddenly put into a position of power over the organization.
The SGA executive slate is composed of president Chris Wilkey, vice president Heather Closson, Secretary Brittany Weaver and treasurer J.P. Bechtel.
"I think it's been a real blessing that I haven't been involved before," Wilkey said. "I am learning what's going on and at the same time, I can help fix things that aren't being run correctly."
While campaigning for office in February, Alliance discussed its platform points, which included improving the Multicultural Center, a project Bechtel said won't be happening until Spring Semester.
"I went to them last year as soon as we got elected, and they were just then trying to make a LGBT[Q] resource room on the top floor," Bechtel said. "That was kind of their focus."
Bechtel said it is not a possibility for SGA to entirely renovate the four-decade-old center, but said he hopes SGA can promote the area to student groups and student organizations more than it has been in the past.
"It's kind of weird that it's on the edge of campus, even more so than the [L.A. Pittenger] Student Center," Bechtel said. "[The university] cares about multiculturalism and diversity, but it's in a little white house on the corner. "
The slate said it hopes to be able to improve the area and allow the space to be used more effectively by student groups and organizations.
Another point stressed by the officers previously was "meeting the people" and making themselves available to the student body.
The Friday of Welcome Week was the group's first major attempt to gain student interest. Offering free entertainment and food to students on University Green for SGA Day, Closson said the association managed to bring in and educate students about the purpose of the organization.
"We just wanted to make SGA more approachable for students because right now, the 'Student Government Association' seems kind of stuffy and unapproachable," Closson said. "We wanted to show that we're students, too, and we're here to help the other students."
Other platform points for the slate include creating a social media hub for student organizations, call BSU Chirp Deck, something Weaver said would be implemented Monday of Homecoming Week.
"We've got it all set up and it's ready to go," Wilkey said.
As of publication, @BSUChirpDeck has zero tweets, two followers and follows seven users, despite apparent efforts to have the initiative up and running by Homecoming Week.
Chad Griewank, SGA parliamentarian, ran against Alliance in the spring as the presidential candidate for Velocity, and is now overseeing the group's progress.
"The progress is not as far as we'd expected them to be at this point, but they're still doing work," Griewank said. "They're not just slacking off, they're not just ignoring what they're supposed to be doing, so they are working hard."
Griewank said the major issues the executive officers have run into since taking office are those coming directly from members of the SGA senate who have little respect for the slate, creating issues within the senate.
"If there's a division in the senate, you aren't going to be able to get anything accomplished, either as a senator or as a slate," Griewank said. "We're slowly, slowly starting to see that go away. People have realized that blocking everything they try to do because they don't like them is not going to solve any problems."
As part of helping to fix any divisions, president pro tempore Zeyne Guzeldereli, who ran with Griewank as the candidate for vice president, now acts as a liaison between the executive slate and senators.
Bigger ideas for the organization include extending the cap on the number of credit hours that students can take before being fined, creating a connection between the Office of Bursar and Loan Administration and the university's bookstore as well as changing the way the SGA elections take place.
Slates begin campaigning around February and take office at the end of March, something Wilkey said he hopes can be changed for future slates, so that the executive slate would end its term at the end of the academic year.
"We just want to make the transition a little smoother," Wilkey said. "We want to show the administration that we're serious."
Motivating student senators and showing them they are capable of facilitating change on campus is also important to their overall platform.
"That's my ultimate goal, to have two or three very large changes on campus," he said. "That way, [SGA] can say they've done this and will be able to do even more next year.
"I'm working on getting SGA back to its prime, back to doing stuff that's making a huge difference on this campus."
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