The 2022 student government elections are just around the corner. As we students get ready to vote for who will represent us in the coming year, it is essential to look back and see what SGA has accomplished in the past 365 days.
SGA began this year with a change of scenery.
Over the summer of 2021, SGA moved into a new office on the second floor of Student Center West alongside GSU student media.
This new office has allowed SGA to operate closer to where most students spend their time on campus. The office is open regular hours on weekdays for students to come and speak with members of SGA.
SGA started the school year by reaching an unprecedented agreement with GSU Parking.
After the parking department delayed the release of budget cards to students who applied for one, our representatives were able to pressure the department to provide students with the budget cards they had requested and return the excess money students had spent parking at five dollars a day.
The organization gave $30,000 back to students and created an incentive program that would provide students with five free parks if they applied for a card by a specific date.
SGA would end the semester with another monumental achievement, the formation of the United Student Organizations.
Students will be able to use the USO to promote collaboration between student organizations, allowing them to share budgets and split efforts to accomplish more than they could on their own.
Current Speaker of the Atlanta Campus Senate Ira Livnat spearheaded the initiative and was backed by Vice-President of Student Engagement and Dean of Students Michael Sanseviro.
During the USO’s opening event on November 12th, nearly a hundred students from dozens of GSU’s student organizations signed the organization’s founding document.
Sanseviro spoke during this meeting. He talked about his feelings about what Georgia State needed and how important the USO could be in his speech.
“It is time for change at Georgia State. – As much as there’s this great growth and progress, there are also some things that are not sustainable.”
After winter break, SGA would return by holding university-wide meetings with representatives from every GSU campus.
In these meetings, SGA discussed significant policies in the works and the welfare of the student body.
The hallmark of the last semester for SGA was a law that created a judicial body as a part of SGA rather than a separate entity tied to the university.
Just this past Thursday, the SGA swore in its first student representative appointed justices to the new Student Judicial Board.
As the semester progressed and election season drew closer, the senate worked to change several policies to improve the quality of life for students at Georgia State.
At the instructor’s discretion, a policy allowing professors to remove students from their classroom was sunset.
The SGA abolished another policy this semester that greatly impacted student organizations.
If a student organization reserved a room in Student Center West for an event, and did not show up at the set time or canceled the reservation without proper notice, the school would levy a fine against the student whose name was on the reservation.
This fine would act as a hold on the students’ accounts, not allowing them to register for classes until paid.
If the student did not pay the fine within a specific time window, the dollar amount would increase.
After some back and forth between SGA and Student Center administration, the groups reached a deal to give money back to the students in more ways than one.
Individual students who had paid fines or had pending penalties on their accounts had their money returned. The number of funds collected from students during the four years of this policy totaled over $10,000.
An additional $20,000 was given back to students in the form of the shared student organizations fund, a pool of money that all student organizations can pull from to fund their events.
The week before spring break, SGA began an initiative to provide free menstrual products to all students on campus. These products will first become available in every female bathroom on campus but will expand to more locations in the future.
Now that you see what SGA has accomplished in this past school year, it is essential to thoroughly review the candidates running this year, reflect on what you want to see change at Georgia State and vote so that work can continue. Ballots open on Saturday the 9th. To vote, go to pin.gsu.edu.
