This semester, SGA has worked to improve the student body experience and bring student concerns to the forefront of the campus discussion. By holding forums, putting on events and sending out surveys, SGA leaders hope to encourage student involvement on campus.
According to SGA Chief of Staff Mikki Moore, SGA has put an emphasis on encouraging the student body to be environmentally friendly.
“The green focus is huge,” she said. “We’re trying to take everything green.”
Moore explained that SGA has taken several steps toward achieving this goal, one of which being a recent event put on in conjunction with the biology department.
“We just held the ‘Paws, Claws and Helping Hands’ event where students were able to go into the biology department and visit with all of the little critters that Dr. Ippolito has up there,” she said. “We learned about how to change our lifestyles so that the animals don’t get hurt anymore by what we’re doing.”
SGA hopes to do similar events in the future, encouraging student involvement in environmental awareness across campus.
“We’re always trying to come up with hands-on ways that we can promote the green campus initiative,” she said. “We’re also preparing for sexual assault awareness month coming up next year. We’re preparing a lot of hands-on activities that can be done to bring awareness and even fundraising for that.”
Moore explained that campus safety issues are important to SGA.
“We’re in the process right now of planning a forum with AUPD,” she said. “It’s a joint forum. We’re going to do that on Thursday, Nov. 7, on the right side of Mocha Joe’s, and we’re going to talk about campus safety.”
At this event, students will have the opportunity to listen to and speak with SGA representatives and AUPD officers.
“So it’s going to be about what AUPD currently does, what they’re planning to do and then we will offer a time for students to bring their ideas to AUPD and SGA about how we can make the campus safer,” she said. “We’re also looking into fundraising options for that.”
Although there will be pletny of time for discussion, Moore explained that the forum will also be informative for students.
“We’re going to talk abou the services AUPD provides, like escort services at night, as well as the progress they have already made, such as the cameras in the main areas of female dorms, LED lights outdoors and more,” she said. “We’re also going to discuss what needs to happen before more safety improvements across campus can be made.”
According to Moore, SGA is also working alongside Food Services to ensure that student needs are met.
“We’re in talks with the food committee,” she said. “They’ve sent out two surveys, one directly from SGA and one from Food Services themselves. We’re constantly in talks with them about things that we can do to improve meal plans and to improve food services in general.”
Although surveys sent to the student body allow students to voice their opinions, Moore explained that students are always welcome to approach SGA directly.
“If students are interested in getting their voices heard and they actually have a complaint or a suggestion on how to fix that complaint, they are more than welcome to reach out to me,” she said.
Moore encouraged students to not be afraid to speak up and speak out.
“They can come and talk to the people who are in charge of the Bookstore, Health Services, Physical Plant, counseling and any of those areas,” she said. “That’s one of the biggest things we’re doing—trying to get a bunch of student involvement in the bettering of the university and generating ideas.”