Computer information systems junior Stephen Bender was recently elected as the Student Government Association president after a “series of unfortunate events” in the organization.
Bender ran against finance and economics sophomore Pedro Saltini for the first multi-candidate election in six years. This election came after the previous president resigned and an interim president was appointed.
Throughout their campaigns, Bender and Saltini stressed how important improving SGA and making them a valuable resource to students again was.
Bender plans to start his presidency by updating the SGA website since this is the first place students will go for information about the organization. The website is currently about five years outdated.
SGA is known for the Big Event, a 16-year tradition of community volunteering. They are currently unsure if this event will be possible this year and have looked into replacement options.
“This year has been so hectic, so we aren’t sure if we have the capacity right now to even host something like that,” Bender said.
SGA plans to volunteer at a retirement home in the community in place of this event.
They are also currently making plans to start working with Big Rapids Public Schools to send volunteers to the elementary, middle and high schools. They’re waiting for a response from the superintendent to see what needs they have.
SGA’s current budget is over $90,000, part of which comes from student tuition, and these events are the only plans they have with this money right now, according to Bender.
The Founders’ Room is reserved for 90 minutes every Tuesday for the SGA meeting, but the meetings rarely last that long and have not been that long this semester, with most meetings lasting no more than 30 minutes.
One section of the meeting is set aside for executive reports where the president, vice president, chief of staff, director of philanthropy, grand treasure and the press secretary all have the option to give a report. Most of the time, there are no reports. Bender said he is going to encourage the cabinet to attend the meetings with their reports so more discussion can be had during this time.
After executive reports, there are committee reports. Bender is on the tuition and fees committee and plans to start bringing a report of what they discussed at their last meeting. He is also going to encourage other people to join committees to learn more about what’s happening on campus and bring that information to SGA.
“I want other students to bring news from all areas of campus, which we don’t really have going on right now,” Bender said. “Student government meetings are kind of their own, separate thing and we just don’t hear much.”
There are currently two hearings of the public at the SGA meeting, one at the beginning and one at the end. Bender, with the suggestion from vice president-elect Brock Harrick, is considering changing the second hearing of the public to be more of a suggestions segment. This would allow general members, students and community members to bring up suggestions for changes within SGA and on campus and for SGA to get feedback to make improvements.
Bender has many plans for changes within the organization in the hopes of making the organization for the students once again.
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