Alberts urges freshmen involvement

Junior Blake Alberts serves as president of the USD Student Government Association, which consists of elected and appointed student senators and an executive team. The organization allocates more than $200,000 to student organizations every year and conducts elections for senate and executive team annually in March. 

Q: What is Student Government Association’s main role on campus?

A: SGA is the voice for students at the level of administration and also at the state level. We try and look out for student welfare and we lobby on changes at the state level that affect students. In addition to that, we oversee student organizations under the Student Activities Center.

Q: Why should students get involved with SGA?

A: I think the influence SGA can have is stronger than students realize. Certainly, the administration here at USD looks to us for input on different changes that are going to affect students. I think a lot of students fail to realize what is going on so if we can get students from as many diverse areas of campus as possible we can represent those students.

Q: How would freshmen learn about SGA and get involved?

A: In terms of learning about SGA the best you could do is just attend the first couple of meetings of the semester. Any interested freshmen can apply and they’ll go through the interview process. The Senate will then vote on whether or not to appoint them.

Q: What qualities do you look for in senators?

A: Generally, when we look for senators, we would prefer for them to go through the election process. When we do appointments, we look for past leadership experiences and involvement on campus. Freshmen may not have that, but you can tell from their high school record. I will say we’re eager to have freshman represented in the fall, so they have a good chance to get on it if they apply right away in the fall.

Q: What are key items SGA has worked on in the past year?

A: One of our biggest projects was our push for the fitness center facility, which the incoming freshman will benefit from in their last years here.

Also, we worked real hard at trying to mold the plan for integrating computer and technology use on campus.

That’s something that will continue into next year, and hopefully then wireless will be utilized in classes.

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