As the school year comes to a close, SGA executive officers look back on SGA’s achievements feeling accomplished and looking for ways to improve.

At the beginning of the Fall 2013 semester SGA members established six goals to strive toward.

1. Building campus traditions and spirit

2. Improving campus safety and awareness

3. Implementing “Green” Initiatives

4. Increased funds for Endowed Scholarship

5. Leading and promoting civic engagement and service

6. Improving navigation and accessibility

“We’ve definitely touched on each and every one of the goals we set out to do in some way or another,” said Senate Vice President Nikki Messer. “We’ve always had those goals and the students in mind.”

All branches have also worked hard to brand SGA in a positive light and have done a good job with getting on social media and blogging, Messer said.

Members of SGA are still working toward achieving those goals as the end of the school year comes into sight, said SGA President Laura Giles.

“We still have passionate people, and that’s rare,” Giles said. “In the past, UPC has always slacked the last couple months or weeks at the end of the semester or year and a lot of them use the excuse of working on the spring concert. The Council and Senate are still going strong.”

Giles said she also feels like SGA has developed a better environment. Senate has become more inviting and UPC is more structured, she said.

“I’ve been apart of UPC for past three years and this is the most structure seen since I’ve been here,” said UPC Vice President Walter Hartley.

Hartley said this year’s SGA has done a good job of enhancing the campus traditions campus already, like Spring Concert, Step Show and Step Sing, and Movie Nights.

The Council has planned more movie nights and had more students attend than in the past, he said.

“The pride of being a part of UPC has increased with our success,” he said. “We’ve done a better job this year than in the past.”

UPC and Senate have also participated in and hosted other events as part of building campus traditions and spirit over the year.

Higher Education Day offered students a great way to exercise their school spirit, said SGA Secretary Kekoria Greer.

“Our students did a great job at the rally,” Greer said. “Everybody who was there was into it. That just goes to show everybody who was there cares and was excited.”

Tailgating at sports events, hosting the Fall Festival, legislating reform to the Homecoming election process and the development of the Unatics school spirit organization are ways SGA has contributed to the building of campus traditions and spirit, Messer said.

“But, there’s definitely always room for improvement,” she said.

The SGA officers agree implementing green initiative and trying to get more recycling on campus is a goal they could improve upon in the future, they said.

“This is something we’re still progressing toward. It’s something we have not made a huge push toward, Messer said.

Working with campus administration to make recycling a university-wide push would help SGA implement this goal in the future, Giles said.

Expanding programs to include students who do not live on campus is something Messer said she wishes SGA had done better on.

“I would’ve liked to see more programs for the commuting students because they usually aren’t on campus at the time of our events,” she said.

Messer said she hopes SGA can find a way to involve those students more in the coming year.

In retrospect, many things that SGA does result from people going out and talking to students and come out of ideas that get started in committee meetings, Giles said.

“A lot of what we do is not solely focused on trying to accomplish a goal,” Giles said. “It’s hard to say when these goals are actually finished because goals are ongoing.”