Parents and faculty pray over the incoming freshman class at the Goodbye Blessing in Moody Coliseum. (Photo by Austin Browning)
Students’ Association has a busy few weeks ahead with upcoming elections, job interviews for new cabinet members and an increased level of involvement with the Campus Activities Board.
Over the summer, SA Executive President Abbey Moses worked with Student Life vice president Chris Riley and Caddie Coupe, director of new student programs, to rethink how SA interacts with other groups organizing events on campus.
As a result, the team decided to bring on Coupe as a co-sponsor for SA and eliminate the Freshman Action Counsel – passing off FAC’s duties to soon-to-be elected freshman class officers. Coupe will also now oversee the Campus Activities Board, which was previously advised by Tom Craig.
Coupe, the wonder woman behind Wildcat Week, will mentor and work with students on event planning in her work with SA and CAB.
“Having Caddie come on as an adviser will be an awesome experience,” Moses said. “She will be a mentor, build character and help students develop professionally.”
Last year, Moses said the freshman class officers and the FAC team planned events on the same nights due to lack of communication between the groups, so Moses, Coupe and Riley wanted to eliminate any source of competition between freshmen groups.
SA will absorb the efforts of Freshman Action Counsel – like class-wide devotionals, Christmas social, and Freshman Formal – with hopes to unite incoming students’ efforts to plan events for their fellow classmates.
“We didn’t want to compete for events with FAC,” Moses said.
Though there won’t be competition for class-wide events among the freshmen, Moses does anticipate highly contested class races for the officer positions. After hosting interest session at each of the New Student Orientations over the summer, Moses had nearly 200 students interested in running for Congress spots for the upcoming year.
“The freshmen are so excited to get involved,” Moses said. “It’s been really cool to see their energy and excitement already to bring community to our campus.”
For anyone interested in running for SA, get out your planners and get your campaign platform ready, because elections are coming up quickly.
The mandatory interest meeting is Wednesday, Aug. 24. After the meeting, students can begin petitioning to get on the ballot, and petitions are due Friday, Aug. 26. Campaigning will run the 26-30, and elections will take place Aug. 30 – Sept. 1, with runoffs on Sept. 2.
Several important items will be on the ballot besides class officers and building representatives when voting opens. Last year, Moses added several Congress positions directly representing student organizations, and this year she has plans to bring in an even wider range of student reps.
Students can vote on the following changes to the SA constitution: adding two spots for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), and two representatives from varsity-level athletics or special interest athletic clubs and organizations.
Additionally, two new cabinet positions are being added to Moses’s team.
In addition to the executive vice president, executive treasurer, executive administrator, chief financial officer and chief communications officer, two new student activity officers (SAOs) will be added.
The SAOs will be interviewed and hired before the first Congress meeting Sept. 7. They will be part of a larger team of five interns on the Campus Activities Board that will work with Coupe to plan events campus wide. Moses said any students interested in these paid intern positions will be able to apply in the next few weeks.
“We are looking for people with a wide variety of social and campus involvement, but no prior Congress or event planning experience is necessary,” Moses said.
