Reid Powell, Student Government Association president, and Brittany Wyatt, SGA vice president were re-elected after running unopposed in the recent race.
Candidate filing applications for SGA president, vice president and each of the seats in the SGA senate opened March 9. Powell and Wyatt filed their names on the same ticket. The filing closed March 15, and during the mandatory candidate seminar on March 16, it was determined Powell and Wyatt would be elected by acclamation to the roles of president and vice president in accordance with Article III Section Two of the SGA Constitution. Powell and Wyatt will be sworn into their positions on April 13th.
The only positions up for an election at press time are the senate seats for the Music District and the Science and Mathematics District. A candidate forum will take place at 5 p.m. on March 26 over Zoom, and the election for these seats will be conducted from 8 p.m. on March 30 to 5 p.m. March 31. The results will be posted that night. The rest of the senate seats were elected by acclamation.
Powell is a political science junior and started in SGA at the end of his freshman year when he was elected by acclamation into the senate seat for the Social Sciences District. During that time, he introduced a resolution for Housing and Residence Life to change their housing process to be more gender inclusive and allow students to room with people with whom they shared their gender identity, regardless of what gender they were assigned at birth, which went into effect in the fall 2021 housing applications.
Powell then ran for vice president under Abby Banks, political/philosophy/economics junior, at the end of his sophomore year, and they both won by acclamation. During his time as vice president, he proposed the idea for create gender-inclusive restrooms across campus, a proposal which, according to Powell, will be completed in the coming weeks.
Wyatt, a political science/philosophy/economics sophomore, started her career in SGA as one of the freshman-at-large senators her freshman year. She then ran for and was elected as one of the sophomore-at-large senators. At the beginning of the fall 2020 semester, she ran for speaker of the senate and was elected to the position.
On Nov. 5, 2020, Banks resigned from the SGA presidential position, so Powell and Wyatt, then speaker of the senate, took over the position of president and vice president on Nov. 9. They have served in both positions since then. As president and vice president, they have worked to strengthen SGA’s social media presence, continued to work on initiatives started in the Banks administration and revitalized student caucuses.
Powell said his and Wyatt’s platform centers around active communication with the student body such as increasing social media and updating the SGA page on OCU’s website, transparency with the students about what is going on in SGA and advocating for student’s best interests.
“In almost every issue we have seen or that has arisen, it is one of these three things that we feel plays a role in how to be more proactive in the future in preventing those from happening. And so, we plan on implementing these, not only in our own administration, but also encouraging—well at this point it will be a future president of our university and our administration to uphold these things as well,” Powell said.
Powell said he wanted to continue and expand some of the initiatives that the previous administrations have been working on to improve, such as the initiative to create gender-inclusive restrooms across campus and the PATs initiative, which distributes menstrual heath products to bathrooms across campus.
Powell said he is in the early planning stages to renovate the Student Leadership Center next to Chick-Fil-A in Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center.
“Every day, I walk in, and I see this large piece of real estate on campus that I think has so much potential, and I hardly ever see students using it. So, I think there are ways we can really improve that space and make it a space where student organizations have a place to call their own,” Powell said.
According to Powell, the plans to improve the Student Leadership center hasn’t been fully fleshed out, but Powell said he is thinking about adding lights to brighten up the space, painting the walls, replacing the furniture with new furniture that encourages group collaboration and upgrading the technology.
Wyatt said her goals for the next academic year are the same as Powell’s, as well as improving student involvement in SGA and teaching senators how to write legislation and experience that process.
“The biggest thing I want to focus on is just legislation: teaching senators how to write legislation, getting the legislation written and the process of doing that. With the process of doing that includes reaching out to people in their districts, talking to their peers and students and campus facilities and administration and things like that,” Wyatt said.
Powell and Wyatt have chosen two people for the positions in their executive cabinet so far. Torey Smith, political science junior, was chosen as the pick for chief of staff, and Tara Ramakrishnan, finance junior, was chosen as the pick for the secretary of finance. Powell said he will open the rest of the executive cabinet positions, which include secretary of public relations, secretary of policies and initiatives and secretary of diversity, equity and inclusion, to the campus instead of picking people from his inner circle, which he said is common for most SGA presidents to do.
“It is typically not precedent that it is through an application,” Powell said. “I know that sometimes there are people who are so eager and passionate to serve in these positions, and they are usually appointed before those people have the opportunity to express that interest. So, I want to make sure that I know everyone that is interested in the role.”
The applications for each of these positions are currently live. The deadline for the applications is 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 24. From there, Powell and the executive committee will decide who they will pick to fill each position. Powell said he is hoping to have his picks selected by April 5. The cabinet picks will then be approved by the student senate in the next meeting.
Levi Harrel, dean of students, said he is excited for the new administration.
“Both President Powell and Vice President Wyatt are deeply empathetic individuals, and you see that in all areas of their leadership, both in and outside of the Student Government Association” Harrel said. “I think that aspect of their leadership benefits them particularly well in the Student Government Association as they represent the voice of students and of the student body.”
Powell and Wyatt said they are ready to get started with their administration.
“Serving the students at Oklahoma City University, we are so passionate about the future of this university and ensuring that the student experience at OCU is the best that it can be,” Powell said.
For more information or questions, students can contact Powell and/or Wyatt at SGApresident@okcu.edu and SGAVP@okcu.edu respectively.
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