SGA Fall Agenda

Last updated on Sep 19, 2018

By Jack Georgis

Staff Writer

The Student Government Association (SGA) is preparing now to set in motion their plans for the fall semester.

Erica Ferrara, a senior geology and environmental sustainability major, is the Vice President of the SGA. She said that SGA serves as a way of giving students a voice when interacting with the school’s administration.

“[SGA is] a council of students, [including] both undergraduate and graduate students. We essentially represent the student body when advocating to the administration,” Ferrara said.

The SGA has an agenda or a set of  goals that they have for the semester, and each individual officer has a set of goals they would like to accomplish during their term.

“My plans this year is to work with student organizations and support them through collaboration. I want to work with them to strengthen their member base and programming events,” Ferrara said of her own goals. “I act as a resource for them when they have any questions about the new 5 star accreditation program.”

Ferrara also mentioned that she plans to focus time on expanding and growing clubs on campus, and helping with the new 5 star accreditation program created by the administration.

The “5 star accreditation” is a set of criteria that a club or organization must complete to obtain a ‘5 star rating,’ or the best possible rating on campus. Also referred to as “Raising Expectations,” the rubric for reaching this status was updated in August of 2018.

Ferrara also discussed her goal of giving the entire university a voice through an anonymous comment form.

“I want students to have a voice, and for them to use that voice to stimulate positive change for this university,” she explained. “To do that, I am working on creating an anonymous comment form where students can submit any concerns they have and our new council can address these concerns accordingly.”

The anonymous comment form is meant to allow students that may not feel comfortable with putting themselves out there publically to have their concerns addressed.

Ferrara discussed the goals of the executive board as a whole, saying that  “this year, we as an e-board, and a council want to continue supporting students and give them the best possible experience they can have here at LIU. We would like to continue working through our committees to improve Academics, Public Safety, Facilities, and Student Engagement.”

Each of these areas are a part of LIU that has a specific focus on campus and interacts with students very frequently.

“We would like to continue to work on side door access from 7-7, improve student-administration relations, and create an even stronger SGA council that will be able to work with more students to create a better LIU,” Ferrara noted.

Last semester Public Safety experimented with allowing side door access to Brookville hall from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., as side door access was blocked after 7 p.m. previously  for all halls. This concern had been brought to SGA last semester, and they began working to expand side door access.

While the SGA officers have already been chosen, there is still a chance to get involved this semester.

“Our fall application to apply for SGA will be out shortly and everyone will get an email at their LIU emails about it. We are very excited to welcome new senators and a new class president for our freshman class. I encourage everyone who is passionate about making change on this campus to apply,” Ferrara said.