UNA’s SGA election season was set in motion on February 14, and students wasted no time in announcing their candidacies for various governmental positions. Most notably were the candidates for President and Vice President. Following this past fall’s impeachment hearing, many students have been interested in SGA affairs. 

Amber Sandvig and Kennedy Edwards are two of the SGA members who announced their candidacy for President and Vice President, respectively. Sandvig, a sophomore majoring in professional management with a concentration in innovation and entrepreneurship, has worked in SGA since her freshman year. Her previous experience with SGA includes Freshman Forum as Student Welfare Chairwoman and the current Academic Affairs Chairwoman for Senate. Edwards is also a sophomore. She is a cinematic arts major with a concentration in acting and minor in mass communications. Like Sandvig, she has also been involved in SGA since her freshman year; she was a delegate of the Outreach and Philanthropy Committee and now serves as the Diversity and Inclusion Advocate for Senate. Outside of the Senate, she is a member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority. 

As Student Welfare Chairwoman, Sandvig gathered feedback from students and aided in student-oriented events (such as the SGA-sponsored Easter Egg Hunt last year). This year, she made a resolution for a student member to be on the Emergency, Safety, and Preparedness Committee, as she finds student outreach and involvement to be important to SGA. Ironically enough, Sandvig is now the student member on that committee. She has also been a driving force for other means of student involvement, including encouraging a bill to be made allowing a student to be on the COVID Taskforce (though, she was not the one who wrote the bill). Most recently, she co-signed a bill with Chairwoman Aliyah McCary for executive council and Senate to go through more diversity, inclusion and leadership training. Additionally, Sandvig worked on a “Treat Yourself” table to promote mental health awareness in the student body, especially during finals week. They used the table to gather feedback for academic affairs as well.

While in the Freshman Forum, Edwards’ committee worked on a food pantry drive and made Valentine’s for veterans. As the first Diversity and Inclusion Advocate, Edwards has spent most of her time shaping the position for future advocates. She hosted an MLK Day table where t-shirts were passed out. She hopes to create a mentorship program for international students and domestic students that would introduce them to campus and the wider Florence community. 

Sandvig and Edwards announced their candidacy the morning of February 14, creating the Instagram page “kennedyandamber4sga”. The two have hosted many meet and greets with students in the GUC, one being the same morning their candidacy was announced. \

Sandvig sees the need for reform in Student Government. Their main campaign platform is centered around more trust within SGA and an increase in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Sandvig also wishes to improve transparency by opening up, at least, the executive council to students monthly. This would be a big step, as executive council is notably private. She also wishes to make senate meetings even more open.

“Instead of going into a room full of people in suits, it is a little more casual,” Sandvig said. “Maybe it’s a Bingo Night, maybe it’s a Meet Your Senators Night. It’s really trying to regain that trust with the students and senator by showing them that we’re not just scary people in suits. We’re there to serve the students, as well.”

Edwards sees the need for increased diversity and inclusion, too. Both wish to create a liaison program to reach out to all UNA students. The plan is for one or two people from each student organization to come to SGA meetings and provide their input on SGA happenings. That way, all communities within SGA can be properly represented and have their voice heard.

“Frankly, we can’t be a diverse group of people with only eighteen senators,” Edwards said.

They have noticed a lack of communication between Freshman Forum and SGA. Edwards noted that Higher Education Day (held on February 24) was the first she had met members of Freshman Forum, because the only SGA member who converses with them is the advisor. Many Freshman Forum members tend to run for Senate seats but rarely have any connections to current Senators. Edwards herself went into the Senate only knowing about two. In addition, there is a lack of personal relationships between Senators. According to Edwards, they interact more like coworkers than a team. 

Sandvig noted former SGA President Ralph Akalonu, who also happened to be UNA’s first international SGA President. Akalonu is from Lagos, Nigeria, and Sandvig found his leadership style admirable. Edwards and Sandvig have found that many students aren’t even aware of what SGA does anymore, despite some student tuition money going towards it. They also raise money for endowed scholarships and facilitate many on-campus events.

“[Akalonu] did a phenomenal job with transparency,” Sanvig said. “He had a YouTube channel, he was doing biweekly addresses to the student body, he was sending off letters to the Flor-Ala. I thought to myself, ‘if we can do that in 2011, then why aren’t we doing more now?’”

Following the impeachment hearing, Sandvig and Edwards discovered that students have a lack of trust in SGA. They hope that their plans for open executive council meetings and liaison programs will increase that trust. Sandvig has visited many on-campus programs and events to get to know certain communities better. She wishes to humanize SGA more.

“We stand for all students, but we understand that there is one group in particular who has been feeling neglected and hurt,” Sandvig said regarding the LGBTQ community. “Students come first, we come second.”

Edwards agreed, saying that, “we are always going to put the students of UNA first no matter what we personally believe, because that is not the point of SGA.”

Sandvig noted that there is often a “leadership paradox” wherein people tend to associate a position of power with an example of good leadership. In her eyes, a good leader is one that listens to the people they represent. They want to encourage more campus outreach to represent and raise money for students (most notably their 5K for endowed scholarships and voting rallies). Sandvig says that in recent years, SGA has developed a bad reputation for a lack of representation, and the impeachment trial was just a catalyst for a more public outcry.

“We are well aware that if we get elected we are going to go into this with the negativity and gossip and the cloud around SGA,” Edwards said. “What our administration will be focusing on is regaining what SGA stood for prior to the impeachment trials.”

Their biggest goal for their administration is to promote student engagement and bring a new light to SGA following the recent negative perceptions. They wish for all communities to have a voice in Student Government. 

“I never make empty promises,” Sandvig said. “Every campaign promise we have has a plan to go with it. We have talked to people at the university. We know those are actually goals that we can accomplish. We are ready to start on day one.”