All summer, the Student Government Association executives have planned for the fall semester. Their plans extend to homecoming, SGA agendas, environmentalism and beyond. They even have a new logo.
"I think the biggest thing for us this [school] year is giving the students a voice back," GraceMarie Ritter, senior, liberal studies and president of SGA said.
"We want to be accessible and receptive to what the students want. Our focus shouldn't be mainly on the administration, it should be on what the students want and then we go to the administration."
One way that Ritter, along with Greg Meyer (Vice President of SGA) and Dann Rosner (Comptroller) plans on being more accessible is by producing a newsletter. The trio will also update a bulletin board on the second floor of the MSC and utilize dry-erase boards on their office doors.
"If we are out of the office we are going to have a dry-erase board out where you can leave your contact information or we can tell you where we are," Ritter said. "We also want to do a weekly update to the whole assembly about what we have been working on."
At SGA meetings this year, Ritter, Meyer, and Rosner plan to continue with a tradition started last year to turn SGA green.
"SGA is completely green now," Rosner, senior, accounting said. "There will be absolutely no paper handed out, all of the information will be on the website… and it will be updated quite often."
Despite the fact that SGA is 'completely green,' the executives still plan to send out a newsletter geared towards student organizations in the SGA assembly. The newsletter will contain information about the on-goings of SGA executives as well as upcoming current events on campus.
"It will be geared towards the assembly so it can help with the organization. Like if the SGA rep (from a student organization) couldn't make it to a [SGA] meeting at least they will still know what is going on [after reading the newsletter]," Ritter said.
Ritter also announced four events coordinated by SGA that the group would hold this fall. Called 'Pizza with Professors,' the four separate events will include four different colleges on campus. The four colleges are Fine Arts and Communications, Business, Arts and Education and Science.
"Any professors that would like to attend will come, meet with students and eat pizza," Rosner said.
"We have already contacted the deans and they are all really on board they are really really excited about it," Ritter added.
One thing that Ritter is "really excited" about is the new SGA logo, which she created in June. Ritter said they believed the old logo was outdated.
"The new logo is more eye-catching," she said "it is very simple and it is easy to read, explains what SGA is and is a little more user-friendly."
While Ritter worked on the logo, Meyer, senior, business major, began coordinating and planning the 2009 homecoming festivities. This year, homecoming will be two days longer than last, starting on September 25, a Friday and concluding on October 3, a Saturday.
"It's two days longer because of the way the soccer games fell," Meyer said.
Another difference in this year's homecoming concerns spirit points. The points will probably be awarded on a percentage scale, therefore giving larger student organizations no advantage over smaller organizations.
"RHA has so many people so they always win the spirit award," Meyer said "They do a great job but I just feel bad for the smaller organizations that do have people show up for everything but don't win because they are smaller."
Yet when asked what their biggest focus is for next year, the three unanimously agreed that it would first-and-foremost be the needs of UM-St. Louis students.
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