Student Government Association held an event called “Meat the Candidates” where students could meet the SGA officer candidates and learn more about their platforms Feb. 17.

Junior Jessica McAlister, junior Dayton Tenney and junior Whitney Pacil are running for secretary of SGA. All three candidates expressed during Meat the Candidates their interest in improving communication between SGA and the student body and being more transparent.

McAlister and Tenney both noted their previous experience working with important legal documents and event planning in their Greek organizations. Pacil said her studies in public relations have prepared her for the position.

McAlister said she thinks intimidation is why students do not get involved with SGA.

“You see people in SGA and they are involved, and that’s not your personality,” she said. “It just takes that one person to reach out and tell you about the organization.”

Tenney said he thinks solving communication problems between SGA and students would make students more involved.

Pacil said she thinks students should not feel intimidated by SGA members.

“We are the nicest group of people on campus,” she said. “When you join SGA, you’ve joined a whole new family. We could do better by being the face of SGA instead of hiding behind our bulletproof glass. We don’t want our doors to be closed.”

Pacil suggested holding a regular joint-branch SGA meeting would help each branch be more transparent with each other and improve SGA’s communication as a whole.

In order to help students know more about what is going on in SGA, Tenney suggested emailing the minutes from every SGA meeting to each student.

“Students can join one of the UNA accounts and make it a collaborative thing like GroupMe,” he said. “I would put all minutes from each branch in the account.”

McAlister also suggested printing the minutes from each branch and handing them out at every branch meeting. She said she thinks this will help each branch know what the other branches are doing.