Nine Senators and 18 Cabinet members were sworn into office at the Student Government Association meeting on Sept. 16 in the University Center auditorium.

The meeting was the first of the academic year and was the first public introduction of the 105th student administration. President Carolina Hernandez Ruiz, Vice President Aashka Barot and Treasurer Akua Acheampong introduced themselves with a slideshow and spoke about their goals for SGA this year.

"We're very thankful for the opportunity of being here and representing the student body," Hernandez Ruiz said. "We want to make this a place of collaboration and to work together to improve this community."

For the senate elections, Barot said the goal is to have two students elected to represent each of the nine colleges on campus. That night, there were 10 applicants.

Each candidate had to give a two minute speech on why they wanted to be a part of the senate, and the audience could ask them two questions to better understand their motives. The audience would then vote yes or no for the candidate immediately after their speech concluded.

The following students became SGA senators:

Aspen Duffield, College of Arts and Media
Sakshi Rajput, College of Business Administration
Rutba Hossain, College of Business Administration
Anand Vaiz, (Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow) College of Health Professions
Shamita Devanand, College of Science and Engineering
Md Yashin Ahmed, College of Science and Engineering
Drea Hammond, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Kathryn House, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Jason Block, Office of Graduate Studies

Barot said elections would continue at the next meeting on Sept. 23, as they plan to have a full senate this year. Nine positions are still available to run for.

She also said they would elect the Senate Leader and Speaker of the House at that meeting.

The budget

Acheampong revealed the 2024-25 fiscal year SGA budget during the second half of the meeting. She said the spreadsheet for the full budget is available to view and download on SGA's Engage page.

"Our goal is to be transparent," Acheampong said.

According to the spreadsheet, there is $24,000 set aside for administrative purposes. Acheampong said this covers cabinet members stipends, internal operations of the association, and committee funds for any events and projects they work on during the year.

Additionally, the Student Budget Allocation Committee (SBAC) has $80,000 that Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) can apply for to assist with conferences and projects.

For RSOs interested in apply for SBAC funds and learning more about the process, Acheampong said they can attend the SBAC Orientation meeting on Sept. 24 at 6 p.m. in the UC Auditorium.

She said RSO leaders and e-board members can sign up for this event on Engage.

In other events

Committee meetings will begin next week. Barot said students will participate in "tryouts," which means they will have two weeks to explore the five committees. When the trial period ends, Barot said students must commit to one committee for the remainder of the academic year.
Hernandez-Ruiz said she will discuss the sustainability fee that was passed last year. She said SGA will be moving forward to set up a student-run committee that manages the funds, and more details will come in later meetings.
RSOs that currently don't have a representative attending SGA can reach out to Aubrey Macintosh, SGA's chief of staff, for more information and to get a representative set up.