As the fall semester comes to a close, most students are packing up to head home for the holidays, or are at least taking off their thinking caps. The Student Government Association on the other hand is gearing up to plan activities, socials, and campaigns for the spring semester.
One of the biggest plans and collaborations SGA has planned for January is a anti-smoking campaign outside of the Sawyer building. The plans are still being mapped out, but the group known to be the voice of the student body is working with Suffolk’s health and wellness as well as the Suffolk University Police Department to curb the air of tobacco on Ashburton Place.
“It’s something we battle daily,” said SGA Treasurer Tyler LeBlanc. “We want to make it safer to walk through Sawyer.”
Through work with health and wellness, SGA hopes to provide smokers reasonable ways to quit. LeBlanc says he does not expect every smoker to quit, SGA hopes to at least reduce the number of students standing out front the revolving doors to the business school building holding cigarettes.
“We wanted to do it this semester, but we had limited resources,” said LeBlanc, a junior. SGA hopes to make this campaign a weekly initiative.
SGA wants to draw smokers’ attention to the space across the street from Sawyer. It is a small area with benches, larger than the Sawyer walkway, where students could go for their cigarette breaks.
After the success of the commuter student forum in November, SGA hopes to offer more options to feel included on campus for peers who travel into the city for class. So far, commuter student socials for commuters to voice their concerns are in the works. SGA also hopes to establish a commuter student association.
“If I wasn’t involved I wouldn’t care about Suffolk at all,” said LeBlanc. He hopes that such socials will give students a reason to love Suffolk, as they will provide a time and space to feel included on campus.
An ongoing project SGA is hoping to finish in the spring is the installment of artwork from the New England School of Art and Design throughout the library. This is one of the initiatives SGA is most proud of. The group is also planning an SGA meeting on the NESAD campus as a part of the constant effort to unite the art school with the main campus, LeBlanc said.
“We have a lot going on and a lot of ideas,” said LeBlanc, noting that many of these goals will go into effect on a trial and error basis.
Something SGA is planning for their own benefit during the spring semester is an SGA alumni event. SGA has managed to find representatives who served as a part of the SGA board over the last 50 years. One of these members is Suffolk’s own Dean Ann Coyne, LeBlanc said.
SGA hopes to get these members together for a panel in which they will discuss how SGA played into their careers.
SGA finds that often as they plan events, initiatives, and campaigns such as these, students will ask SGA how these issues can be fixed on campus. LeBlanc says this is not only because they are students, in-sync with the rest of campus, but because SGA members always have their ears open for suggestions.
“How we can better serve students” is what they are there for, LeBlanc said. The group wants to “be there for students and be vocal for students,” he said.
