SGA Vice President-elect prepares for future semesters

Reid Powell, political science sophomore, plans to increase student impact as the newly announced SGA vice president.

The new Student Government Association executive team was announced on March 12 after every position ran unopposed.

Powell said he has many ideas about what he wants to do in his time as vice president, but one thing stands out beyond the rest. He said as vice president, he will act as chairperson for the Student Senate, which mainly works to allocate funds to different student organizations. Powell said along with the allocation of funds, he wants to expand the impact and outreach of the Student Senate on campus.

“We don’t always reach out to our constituents on campus,” Powell said. “A big thing I want to push for next year is getting senators more involved in speaking with students, addressing concerns, reaching out to faculty, staff and administration to learn about issues on our campus to find the best way we can be a bridge between students and the other individuals on our campus to continue to benefit the experience of students at OCU.”

Powell also said his running experience was different than prior vice presidents in multiple ways. Throughout the last year, current SGA President Trousdale worked to amend the election format for the SGA Executive team, so presidential candidates and vice-presidential candidates would run together on a ticket system, rather than separately.

“The cool thing with this new ticket system is before, there was this huge disconnect between the role of the president and the vice president because they were elected separately,” Powell said. “President Trousdale did a great job of working to alleviate this divide and unify the two positions. I think creating this ticket system will create a really great opportunity for the president and vice president to work together and help make change in both the Executive Team and the Student Senate, creating greater change for the students.”

Abby Banks, political science/philosophy/economics sophomore, is the current SGA vice president and will be the next president for SGA during the 2020-2021 school year. Banks said she chose Powell as her vice president for a multitude of reasons.

“There’s so many things that will make Reid a good vice president for SGA. He is a hardworking individual and he truly does care about students and the betterment of OCU, and I think that will show as he serves as vice president, as well as how much of a friendly person he is,” Banks said “He truly cares about every person he talks to. You don’t see those very often and so to see those in someone who is going to lead us is really, really exciting.”

Powell said the way the elections worked out made it easier for students.  

“It was nice in the sense that it worked out because elections would have been this past week,” Powell said. “That means all of the campaigning would have been strictly virtual and really if we had been running against other candidates, all of us wouldn’t have been able to reach out to students as effectively as we would have liked, or gotten to communicate and spread our platform and talk about the things we are passionate about.”

Levi Harrel, dean of students, is the advisor of SGA. Harrel said there are many things about Powell which will make him an influential and impactful leader on campus.

“Reid has a kind, caring, and ambitious spirit. He leads from the heart and will integrate that heartfelt leadership into the SGA Senate,” Harrel said. “Reid desires to know the entirety of a situation. He understands for any issue there are different opinions, perspectives and sides, and he wishes to better understand and appreciate all of those.

Harrel said Powell will be able to relate to students.

“He is authentic in his leadership style because what you see from him is genuine and passionate leadership day in and day out,” Harrel said.
Powell said he is excited to start his term as vice president, though they do not know exactly when that will be currently due to the impact of COVID-19. However, Powell said the inauguration for the next SGA Executive Team will be held before summer, so he and Banks can begin working on their summer and fall duties.

“Abigail and I are so excited to be working with the student body of OCU as well as all of the faculty and staff on campus. I know our doors and emails are always open, and people can always reach out to us if they have any concerns or questions,” Powell said.