The Suffolk Student Government Association held their third open meeting last Thursday in Somerset B18.
SGA president Sean Walsh began the meeting by addressing the new senators from the class of 2020. The students spent weeks campaigning by hanging fliers throughout campus and posting frequently on Facebook.
“We’re really excited to have all of you new senators. It’s very clear how enthusiastic you all were the last couple weeks campaigning and showing how much you care about this school,” said Walsh.
Ann Coyne, the dean of students, also attended the meeting.
Coyne told her own personal story about how she is a Suffolk alum. When she was a student at the university years ago, there was not a program council, so SGA had to tackle everything. She wanted student government to focus more on the issues facing Suffolk instead of programming, so she helped form the program council, which has continued to run today.
“I especially value the work of student government. To be the voice of students on campus is really such an important position,” said Coyne. “The administration listens to you, seeks out your opinion and wants to know what students are telling you about ways to improve the university.”
Nominations for the finance committee- a branch of the SGA that works with all Student Activities fees- were announced after Coyne finished her speech.
“I was on finance committee last year. I really enjoyed my time there and got a lot of good work done there,” said sophomore Dan Hurley..
SGA members then divided into small groups based on their year of graduation to elect three representatives from each class for class speaker, finance committee and student judicial review board.
Only class senators can be a part of Student Judicial Review Board.
Finance committee and student judicial review board both meet on Tuesdays during activities period.
SGA wrapped up the weekly meeting with an open forum to give students the opportunity to bring up any issues they wanted to discuss.
Many of the questions asked were about the Board of Trustees. Some of the questions included concerns about what happened during the spring semester, if the school’s accreditation is at risk and how SGA played a part in the media frenzy that had unfolded..
“Last year, the Student Government Association did a lot of work dealing with the administration and the Board of Trustees to figure out what was truly going on and trying to understand why they were doing what they were doing.” Walsh said.
“It’s been a really interesting social change as well because while you have not only current students who formed rallies and did as much as we could, but there was also faculty involved, there was staff involved, there were alumni involved. So it really brought unity to the Suffolk community,” said Levi Smith. “This is like a change that you’re now a part of. It’s kind of tying everything together and that’s something that hasn’t really happened in the history of the school, as I understand.”
Student Government Association meetings are held every Tuesday in Somerset B18 during activities period. All students are welcome and encouraged to attend and participate.
