You have probably seen the signs outside the cafeteria: “SGA Board,” “Sponsored by SGA,” or “SGA Pop-Out.” But do you actually know what SGA does? Honestly, do any of us remember what the acronym means anymore?
Student Government Association President Abigail (Abby) McGue sat down with me to discuss what SGA is and what they plan for this year.
“SGA stands for Student Government Association; it’s completely student-led and run. Our executive board, committee chairs, and senate make sure there’s a place for every student to be involved somehow,” McGue explained.
SGA exists for a number of purposes: they fund activities, provide charters and funding for student clubs, and take on big projects and events that no one organization could necessarily host alone.
“This year we’ll be doing our Pop-outs, which I’m sure you’ve seen signs for around campus. We also host the Dance Through the Decades in spring,” McGue said.
How do they have all this money? Most of it comes from the student government fee in your tuition. In turn, SGA focuses primarily on supporting traditional undergraduate students, as they’re the ones who pay the fees to make sure SGA can keep working.
“The way we decide to support anything is ‘Could it benefit most students?’ For example, a Res Life event will benefit a lot of students but might not have a lot of funding,” McGue said.
Other big projects on the docket for SGA this year include replacing the “outdated” glass panels in the chapel hallway so that students can see faces they might know from the past two years “instead of the last twenty.”
“General facelifts we want to see: SGA has been working to improve the undercroft and the tunnels for years. Students walk through and spend time in them, the commuter lounge, the landing, these spaces we see every day, we make sure that either we improve them or someone else gets the project done,” McGue said.
SGA might not be for everyone, but because everyone is affected, McGue encouraged everyone to learn more.
“I know not everyone is interested in joining student government, but we all have ideas to make things better. That’s what SGA is here to do,” McGue said. “Think of SGA as how you start a club, do big projects: if someone has a big idea I don’t want it to stop there.”
To learn more about SGA, follow them on social media or email the president at abigail.mcgue@cuw.edu.
—Samuel Boehlke is an editor, blog manager, and photographer for The Beacon, the official student newspaper of Concordia University Wisconsin. He is a Senior Editor with New Guard Press and Veraffinitas and a contributor at Wisconsin Right Now and The Federalist. He will graduate in May 2024 with his bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication and a minor in Law and Politics.