SGA meets, plans upcoming year

Vice President of Senate Emily McCann, President Ralph Akalonu, Secretary Rachel Gandy, Senate Pro-Tempore Tyrie Fletcher and Freshman Forum adviser Jordan Brasher address the SGA senators at last week’s Senate meeting.

by Josh Skaggs News Editor

SGA Senate met for their first weekly meeting last Thursday by discussing their plans for the new year, and what they plan to do to better serve students at UNA.

In addition to planning, SGA also talked about their new logo designs in hopes of creating a more consistent brand between each branch of SGA. Senate also discussed issues they have with Sodexo, UNA’s food service provider.

“This year is going to be busy, it’s going to be challenging, but we are going to have fun,” said SGA President Ralph Akalonu.

Akalonu promised to push legislation that was brought up last year to improve on the work SGA did in past years.

SGA, in conjunction with UNA President William Cale, implemented a student fee in anticipation of buying the Florence Golf and Country Club. Since the property will not be purchased by UNA, SGA has an excess of money to spend on proposed projects around campus.

SGA plans to hold a student referendum to see what students want the money spent on. The proposed projects include adding flat-screen televisions and MANE card machines throughout campus, installing a rock wall in the Student Recreation Center and possibly adding a disc golf course on campus.

SGA is also working on legislation that will extend Thanksgiving break to an entire week in November.

“(The Thanksgiving break extension) is still under review,” Akalonu said.

The main topic discussed at SGA’s meeting was students’ dealings with Sodexo.

“There seems to be a consensus in the student body about WoW over at the SRC,” Akalonu said.

According to Akalonu, SGA is looking at working with Sodexo on a healthier option in the SRC. One of the ideas SGA is considering is switching the current World of Wings location with SubConnection in order to provide healthier food in the recreation center.

“(This is about) being able to give students a healthy choice,” Akalonu said. “This is a worthy goal, but anything that is going to happen is going to cost money. At the end of the day, we are the consumers of that, and we want this.”

Senate also approved the appointments of eight new senators to represent the UNA student body. Of these senators, three were from Africa, one from China and one from Scotland.

Vice President of Senate Emily McCann said SGA is working on creating a diverse group of students to represent the UNA student body.

According to McCann, Senate placed goals for themselves at their summer retreat, including retaining senators, finding a new meeting place, switching WoW and SubConnection and increasing volunteerism throughout their organization.

SGA will meet in their proposed new location Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in Raburn Hall Room 109.

For more information regarding SGA, contact their office at 256-765-4207.