Current Chief Justice William Takewell taped up the pieces of paper outside the SGA office to display the winners of the 2012 SGA elections on Wednesday, March 14 around 3:30 p.m.
Branden Summers won the position of president, as he ran unopposed. Summers was joined in victory by his newly elected vice president Megan Wiggins. The two together are moving forward into a new SGA and school year.
“It feels awesome. I’m so excited! I did a lot of campaigning. I did a Facebook page and I blew up my newsfeed,” said Wiggins, who is a junior sociology major. “I gave out 2,000 flyers and I’ve been campaigning all week. I definitely think word of mouth is the best way to get it out there and telling everybody about it, and encouraging them to vote and have a voice.”
Wiggins defeated Shawndreka Gatlin with a total of 597 votes over Gatlin’s 338.
Once the elected candidates are inaugurated into office in May, they will be able to see where the SGA budget stands. The official inauguration for the new candidates is set to be held on Wednesday, May 12.
“When we first get in, we are going to assess everything. We’re going to see where we’re at financially and in involvement,” said Branden Summers, a sophomore marketing major. There are a lot of things on my platform that I want to start addressing so we will slowly but steadily get kicked up, but toward the end of the summer we will be at full speed.” Summers and Wiggins used the platform of growing and retaining present SGA programs, as well as gaining more student participation on campus.
“Some of the things on my platform, we are pushing for more involvement, trying to get SGA out there more,” said Summers. “We are getting some students to design a program with SGA text messages where students can subscribe and then we can send out messages, and we would like to see if we could grow that so other organizations can also use that for them to pass along.”
Other issues the pair is trying to address in the coming school year include expanding the library printer use, the Lion Traxxs and cleaner bathrooms. Summers is keeping a clear head for now to focus on future goals and Wiggins wants to jump right into the Hammond community.
“I don’t want to set myself on just one goal besides the goal of making Southeastern and SGA better than it was before I took reign, so we’re always looking for the positive direction,” said Summers.
“I really want to be a liaison to the Hammond community by going to the city hall meetings and updating them with what’s going on at Southeastern, and with SGA,” Wiggins said.
For more information about SGA and the election results go to their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/StudentGovernmentAssociation-SELU or visit their office room 207 in the War Memorial Student Union.