Correction: The original version of this article misspelled the names of Vice President Sammy Azúa and Speaker of the Senate Selma Marić. Elon News Network deeply regrets this error.
The Student Government Association held their first meeting of the semester on Sept. 4. The meeting brought the executive council, made up of Executive President Anya Bratić, Vice President Sammy Azúa, Vice President of Communications Kennedy Steiner, Vice President of Finance Ian Brecker and Speaker of the Senate Selma Marić in front of the senate to detail the five priorities they worked on over the summer.
Bratić said in an interview with Elon News Network that the executive council took time during the summer to reflect on previous councils priorities and decide what would have the greatest impact on Elon students.
“In several years past with other execs, we’ve had really, really, wonderful priorities, but not one that necessarily been all cohesive and or surrounded around one another,” Bratić said after the meeting. “That’s where we really succeeded. This year we decided that it was really important for us to all have a common goal.”
This list of five priorities is used by the executive council to set the tone on how they plan to engage with Elon students and the SGA senate. Throughout their presentation, members of the executive council highlighted getting students involved in different aspects of campus life and having SGA be present across campus. Each member of the executive council will be spearheading a certain priority, with support from the other members.
Brecker will be focusing on student belonging and organizational connection. He will be utilizing faculty to help encourage students to join or create organizations. Marić will focus on internal growth and impactful leadership of senators. Marić plans to invite multiple campus resources such as the Center for Design Thinking to SGA meetings to develop senators' leadership skills. Azúa will be focusing on community and campus connections.
Steiner will prioritize awareness of SGA. The executive council wants senators to be visible members on campus and plans to do this by being present at campus events.
Bratić described how SGA plans to do this by hosting conversations in coffee, an event held at Oak House where students have the opportunity to speak to senators about any concerns they may have.
Bratić will focus on ensuring students are aware of campus resources. She recently launched her first episode of “Anya’s Top 5,” a biweekly Instagram series where she will be spotlighting campus resources. Bratić said she got the inspiration from Vice President of Student Life Jon Dooley’s Phoenix Five.
“Sometimes we miss a lot of the resources that are on campus that don’t get necessarily touched on from the Phoenix Five, and so I wanted to shed additional light onto the amazing resources that we have,” Bratić said.
After explaining their five priorities, the executive council opened the floor to other business such as four new appointments to the senate. Julie Snow was appointed to class of 2026 senator, junior Dia Haspel was appointed to School of Education senator, Jocelyn Gomez was appointed to class of 2027 treasurer and junior Christopher Dullanty was appointed to the finance board.
Throughout the meeting, the executive council emphasized the importance of getting freshmen to be aware of the upcoming elections and how they can run as a class senator. There is an application packet on PhoenixConnect that closes Sept. 9 students interested in joining SGA can fill out. After filling out the application, students have to attend a mandatory candidates meeting, where they will learn about the election and campaign process.
“We would love to see a competitive race, joining SGA was one of the most formative experiences of my college career, and I hope that people are willing to put their name out there, run the campaign, I know it can feel a little bit daunting,” Bratić said.