Student Government Association President Ellie Diaz said that this year the SGA hopes to improve transparency this year and allow first-year students to become acclimated to Loyola before first-year council elections commence.

SGA president, Ellie Diaz, said the national leadership conference she and other members of SGA attended this summer gave her a fresh perspective on ways to best aid the Loyola community.

Diaz and SGA’s Director of Communications, Jourdan Webb, agreed it was interesting to see the different forms of leadership among attendees of the conference, who were also students from Jesuit institutions. The two pointed out notable differences in the strengths and circumstances of other Jesuit schools.

“All of the schools have that foundation of Jesuit universities as a whole,” Diaz said. “But we saw differences as well.”

For example, Diaz said Creighton University centers SGA events around their sports teams. She said this approach achieves the same goals Loyola’s executive board hopes to accomplish this year, but Loyola requires a different framework to meet community and leadership goals. The executive board also benefited from hearing how other schools connect with their students.

“Getting to meet people from other Jesuit schools in the same positions helped me gain skills with social media,” Webb said. “There was a lecture on media strategies and branding that will also help to reach students at Loyola.”

Improving media strategies may prove essential this school year, since Loyola publicized its Affirmative Action and Diversity Committee over the summer. SGA plans to appoint a member to the diversity board this fall semester. Media strategies could also help improve transparency issues, a longstanding goal of SGA representatives.

English sophomore Casey Dawson feels optimistic about the direction in which Diaz will take SGA because of Diaz’s recognition of issues between the executive board and the student body.

“Last year I read The Maroon’s issue on the SGA elections and remember seeing that Ellie acknowledged the lack of communication with the student body,” Dawson said.

Diaz’s major project this semester will be the first-year council. She plans to revamp the council’s election process by introducing first-year students to Loyola’s and SGA’s purposes and values before throwing new students into a campaign shortly after they arrive on campus.

“You should have a purpose behind what you’re doing,” Diaz said. “They will be the leaders of this campus when I leave.”

SGA’s first senate meeting will take place Sept. 7 in the Audubon room (upstairs in the Danna Student Center). The deans of each academic department will be present.