Saint Mary's Student Government Association (SGA) tallied the votes of this year's election Friday morning and announced juniors Maureen Parsons and Meghan Casey as president and vice president, respectively.
"When we first heard the news of winning the elections, we were beyond excited," Casey said. "We were grateful that the student body elected us to represent them and put into action our goals that we wish to achieve."
Parsons said the win was a result of hard work and active support.
"With our determination and the help of our friends, we were able to reach out to as many students as possible to convey our platform through signs, posters, and attending events throughout the week," Parsons said. "It was great to know that our hard work during the week finally paid off!"
Post-election, Parsons and Casey said they will appoint the remaining members of SGA and put together a list of goals while working with SGA adviser Karen Johnson.
"Our goal is to have all appointed positions selected by April 1st so that we can begin working with the current SGA members to have a smooth transition into the new SGA structure," Casey said. "We will meet as a group to create goals and lay out a timeline of what we would like to see happen as a whole in the next school year for the student body. Also, we will sit down with each position to create goals and a timeline specific to their title."
In addition, Parsons said she hopes to launch a student mentor program as soon as possible.
"We want to begin the mentor program this spring so that it is developed and ready to launch in the fall of 2012," Parsons said. "Once the program has been approved, we will begin recruiting interested rising seniors and rising juniors who would like to be a part of this new program. A rising senior will be paired with a rising sophomore, and a rising junior will be paired with a first year student at Saint Mary's."
The mentor program will help fulfill a platform goal of unifying campus, Casey said.
"This will allow relationships to develop among students and build a strong sense of unity around our campus, a top priority for us as student body representatives," she said.
Parsons and Casey said they will begin working with the administration at Saint Mary's to look at options for a master calendar they hope to create for the campus.
"This calendar will have each day's meetings and events that are occurring on campus, and hopefully eliminate the large amounts of emails that students receive each day, Parsons said. "We hope that this calendar will help unify campus and keep students informed and aware of campus life activities."
During the SGA retreat at the beginning of next fall semester, Parsons and Casey will begin brainstorming ways to carry out their goals in the best way to represent the student body, Casey said.
"We are excited to implement the new SGA structure this next school year and look forward to the positive changes that it will bring for the student body of Saint Mary's," Parsons said.
Joining Parsons and Casey are eight new campus senators. Juniors Kristen Rice, BrittaniHradsky, Alyssa Vinluan and Amanda Stukel will join the SGA team in addition to sophomores Jennifer Bandeen and Abby Burgan and freshmen Meghan Talpash and Christie Hutch.
