With the start of the fall semester, Colgate’s Student Government Association (SGA) has been meeting and discussing ideas for the upcoming academic year. Students on the SGA started the academic year with SGA orientation, in which new and old members of the executive board and Senate met to brainstorm ideas for the semesters to come. Many different initiatives were discussed at the orientation, and there was a common theme of making the SGA’s role more transparent to the Colgate community.

Some of the main initiatives that the SGA plans to work on this year are a part of the five-year plan, which was created by SGA President senior Kegan Thompson and SGA Vice President senior David Kim. One component of this five-year plan is the idea for a Department Ambassador Program in which students from the various major and minor departments would be chosen as mentors to help incoming students decide the professors and courses that would be the best fit for them. The project is something that Thompson and Kim hope to implement over time, as a part of this

five-year plan.

Another major initiative is the new SGA website. Sophomore Samantha Braver worked over the summer to develop the SGA website, which is one of the ways in which the SGA aims to increase transparency and communication with the Colgate community. The desired result is to allow students to ask more questions and leave comments on the webpage in the future.

Some of the projects that were worked on last year – and will be planned again for this year – include SGA inclusion dinners, fireside chats and the “Raider Roar,” which takes place in Case-Geyer Library during finals week. The SGA also wants to continue to hang up flags in Frank Dining Hall as a way of signifying the various nations represented by the student population at Colgate. Another major initiative that was addressed during orientation and the executive board meeting was SGA’s brown bag series from last year, which the SGA hopes to continue and improve upon this year.

Class council elections were held this week, and the elected candidates from each class year were announced on the evening of Monday, September 7. Students were encouraged to vote for the respective members of their class year whose ideas most resonated with them. Next week will mark the start of Senate elections, so students are again urged to vote for their peers to serve as class representatives. Sophomores Sage Krombolz and Alison Sheehan are Election Commissioners this year for the SGA, and they are working to make sure that the elections – both for the class council and the Senate – run smoothly. 

“I love getting to read the ballot statements of all of the candidates and hearing about their awesome ideas,” Krombolz said.

If you have any questions or concerns about the voting process this semester, you can email [email protected] for more information.

The SGA is also planning on having an ice cream social on September 10, so that first-year and other interested students of other class years can become acquainted with SGA members and learn more about what the student government does, while simultaneously enjoying Gilligan’s ice cream. The event will be located on the academic quad from 11:20 a.m. until 1:20 p.m. All students are welcome to meet and ask members of the SGA about their roles and the initiatives to be implemented this semester.

Thompson noted his enthusiasm for the start of the semester and for the chance to work with both new and returning students involved in SGA.

“This is an exciting time for student government at Colgate. It is phenomenal to have an impressive group of new members in SGA to complement our veterans while we work on an ambitious platform of initiatives. SGA has a lot of exciting items on our agenda this year, and I am excited to work hand in hand with our student peers, the faculty and the administration to improve our campus,” Thompson said.