SGA does multiple things that go unnoticed for the ACU campus, but the organization is making decisions to change this which is a positive push for this organization.

SGA plans and hosts multiple events which include Join Week, AMP Up, Christmas celebration and other campaign events. These events are what the majority of the student body considers when they think of this organization. SGA does more behind the scenes that students should be aware of. Because of this, SGA is moving toward having bills and resolutions that are passed posted on their website and social media.

This is how your student government works: SGA oversees a lot of things that involve, students, faculty and staff. This organization is made up of an executive cabinet which includes Alli Dimmit as president and Nathan Marshall as vice president. Besides this cabinet, there are also elected representatives that make up the senate.

The senate has a lot of responsibilities as it represents the student body. The senate gets to create and vote on bills and resolutions. Bills are pieces of legislation that will require a part of the SGA’s funds. Resolutions do not require funds from this account.

Posting the passed legislation on their website will allow for students to understand what SGA is doing in their meetings. It also allows the Senate to get more recognition.

SGA will also be posting on their Instagram highlights of passed legislation. It will highlight the senators who helped write and present this legislation. The posts will also have a description of what the piece of legislation consists of.

“Each week we are going to publish the legislation that gets passed,” said Dimmitt, senior political science major from Naples, Florida. “We want to be able to celebrate the Senators externally that propose legislation and passes so that it is not just the SGA body that is celebrating it, but the student body as well.”

This push for publicity will help SGA achieve double the productivity in their meetings. This is a goal for this organization during the school year. The publicity will not be the only thing that is helping achieve this. To achieve this goal, it will also include more structured timing in meetings, more presentations and discussions, and the push for the Senate to write its own pieces of legislation. The organization has provided a template for writing legislation and an environment that encourages supporting ideas that the Senate comes up with.

“Even the legislation that does not get passed will still be celebrated because all of SGA is going to celebrate that person for all of their hard work and research that went into it,” Dimmit said.

Multiple bills in the past have caused change around campus. Recently, SGA helped in the decision for the university to move the minimum wage to $8 on campus. The organization was able to present this idea to the Office of Human Relations and the Department of Finance for the last two years to finalize the plan. This was known to the public with a press release from the office of Dr. Phil Schubert, president of the university.

Although this is a push for students to understand, some have disagreed saying that it is not enough. Last year, a piece of legislation was trying to be passed that would allow for the votes on legislation to be publicized individually after meetings. There was pushback on this legislation as multiple students felt that it could cause controversy and ultimately not allow SGA to function.

“If they want to be vocal about it, they absolutely can. They can give a speech for or against the bill,” said Marshall, senior finance and information systems major from McKinney. “Depending on the nature of the bill, we could get a large amount of abstentions, which is just not productive and does not encourage people to really represent, not only the reasons why they campaign in the first place, but the people that they campaign to represent.”

SGA is making the right choices by letting the students, faculty and staff of the ACU campus understand what this organization is doing for the campus, even if it is just for the passed legislation. To see passed legislation for this school year, go to www.acusga.com/enacted-legislation