SGA swears in 16 members
- Dylan Pichnarcik
- Oct 3
- 2 min read
By Dylan Pichnarcik
Associate Editor
Student Government Association swore in 16 newly elected members on Sept. 29.
The newly inducted members included a vice president, secretary, publicist, and 13 senators.
In their first official act as a senate, a motion to appoint Jobe Murphy as a senator was made by Events Coordinator Alix Ayoub and seconded by Senator Mari Awuah.
Murphy ran for vice president in the fall election. However, he lost the election to Shubham Valand.
After an “aye” or “nay” vote, Murphy’s appointment as a senator was approved, and he was subsequently sworn in.
During the meeting, SGA President Cesár Matos announced SGA will host a retreat for new and returning members on Friday, Oct. 3, and Saturday, Oct. 4, to familiarize new members with SGA’s rules and procedures.
Matos also asked members of SGA to sign up for University Governance Committees. Including the All University Committee, University Curriculum Committee, and Academic Policies Committee.
After the fall election cycle, Matos said in an interview with The Gatepost that he is pleased with the increase in membership on SGA.
He said he credits Ayoub for the increase in membership.
“A lot of the people that came on this year were thanks to Alix, and I feel like a lot of the attributions have been made to me, which, you know, is great. I love recognition, but let's recognize Alix as well. Alix brought in a lot of people,” Matos said.
Ayoub said she worked to invite students she knew to join SGA and promoted membership through social media, physical flyers, and tabling.
According to Matos, approximately 8% of the student body voted in SGA’s fall election.
Last year, approximately 37 students voted in the SGA election, according to Matos.
He said he hopes SGA will continue to grow this semester.
“We’re not doing enough. We are basically in a cycle of getting halfway to everything that we're attempting to do, and I don't like finding ourselves in a cycle of getting things half done. We still have 14 empty Senator positions, so we're still going to find every capacity to ensure that we get those 14 filled,” Matos said.
He said with each new addition to SGA, they will be able to better support the student body.
“I’m hoping that we're able to finally function at the capacity that we're supposed to and expand beyond what that is supposed to be,” Matos said.
