Student Government Association has inaugurated officers into new positions, transitioned to online operations and donated the remainder of their budget for the school year to the university’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund.
SGA Inauguration
SGA’s 2020-2021 Inauguration was conducted through Zoom on Wednesday, Apr. 15.
Abby Banks, political science/philosophy/economics sophomore, was inaugurated as SGA President. Banks said she is thankful SGA had an online ceremony.
“The inauguration was obviously different being on Zoom, but we had a great turnout,” Banks said. “It was amazing to be supported by my friends and family as I transition into this new role. Words cannot express how humbled I am to be a servant of the student body.”
Banks served as vice president of SGA last year. Though this was her second inauguration, she said this year’s ceremony was more meaningful to her.
“This inauguration had a little more impact on me because I’m beyond thankful to be chosen as president,” Bank said. “I’m so excited to work with my cabinet and see the leadership they’ll bring to SGA.”
Reid Powell, political science sophomore, was inaugurated as vice president and said he really enjoyed the ceremony.
“The inauguration lasted about 30 minutes, and it was a great time,” Powell said. “We had President Burger and members of her cabinet who came. It was an opportunity for Trae Trousdale to give some outgoing remarks, and for President Banks to give some words. It was a pretty short night, but it was a good opportunity for us to all come together and recognize some really great people on our campus.”
Powell served in SGA last year as the social sciences senator, and he also said this year’s inauguration was more meaningful.
“It definitely felt different in the sense of gaining more responsibility,” Powell said. “I’m so excited to serve in this role and help make change at OCU by being a voice for the students.”
Kate Morton Wood, music theater sophomore, said she was looking forward to the inauguration ceremony and is glad it was held on Zoom.
“It was a great event,” Morton Wood said. “I am so excited about the new officers, and I really think the positions are in extremely capable hands. They’ll make the OCU community proud, and I can’t wait to see all they accomplish during their term.”
Transitioning Offices
Banks said SGA’s current focus is transitioning into new offices.
Former SGA President Trae Trousdale said despite not meeting in person, transitioning offices was a lot smoother than last year.
“We’ve been working on transitioning since Abby’s election was official in March,” Trousdale said. “It’s been extremely simple, and I think a large portion of that is due to the fact Abby served in the administration as vice president this year. She had a year to monitor and learn how you do the chief executive role in SGA.”
Trousdale also said the new SGA administration already has a lot of experience.
“We have a strong team of secretaries both leaving and coming in,” Trousdale said. “I believe every new secretary has served in the student senate before. We also have continuity in offices. For example, the secretary of policy and initiatives will be the same person. It’s been an extremely smooth transition period between my administration and Abby’s.”
Banks said she was lucky to have served as vice president in the executive cabinet and learn from Trousdale.
“Transitioning hasn’t been difficult, because I’ve watched how the president does their job all year,” Banks said. “I’m extremely lucky to be following someone like Trae. He made it so easy because he set such a good example as president.”
Trousdale said many initiatives like the Pads and Tampons Project will continue as planned with the new officers next semester, but the biggest change will be the initiative to paint a mural honoring Clara Luper. (For information about the original mural plans, see our article here.)
“The Clara Luper mural is something we have multiple meetings about in the coming weeks,” Trousdale said. “Since the students creating the mural are graduating, we’re trying to figure out if there’s a way to bring them back and see when they can access the building they’re painting in. If they’re not able to continue the project, we’re discussing other ways to honor Clara Luper. It’s still up in the air right now.”
Banks said while SGA is focusing on transitioning and finding solutions to initiatives like the Clara Luper Project, they will soon start planning new initiatives.
“As we get closer to the end of the school year, we’ll get an estimate on how much money we have for the summer budget,” Banks said. “Once we get that estimate, we’ll go from there deciding if we want to do any initiatives over the summer, or if we want to pre-plan initiatives for the next school year.”
Donating the Budget
Trousdale said SGA donated the remaining $6,000 in their budget on March 27.
“We’ve been working throughout this year building up to many different things that were supposed to have been completed in the last month of school,” Trousdale said. “We’re looking at an additional $6,000 that had already been allocated for this school year but hasn’t been spent. OCU doesn’t allow departments to carry money over to the next semester, so we decided to go ahead and push that money to the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund.”
Trousdale said he encourages students who are facing considerable financial hardships to contact Dr. Levi Harrel, dean of students, at ljharrel@okcu.edu for direction.
Banks said it was an easy decision for them to donate the money.
“The goal of SGA has always been and, hopefully, will always be to help students and improve students’ lives,” Banks said. “This is a historic time; we’ve never seen anything like this in our lifetimes. There are a lot of students and faculty members that are struggling. If SGA can make their lives a little bit better by donating to the emergency fund, then it was an easy decision.”
Noah Morgan, music theater sophomore, said he is currently on campus in emergency housing and received help from the emergency response fund. Morgan said he filled out an application in a Google document and requested the maximum amount of aid, which was $100.
“On top of receiving emergency funds, the university is still paying federal work-study students which is incredible,” Morgan said. “I was worried about paying bills. It is just $100, but every penny helps. I’m able to not worry about groceries because I got the help I needed from the school.”
Morgan said he appreciates SGA contributing to the fund and helping students.
“That’s very kind and thoughtful of them to donate the rest of their budget,” Morgan said.
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