Student Government Association President Stephanie Oblena and Vice President Viviana Alvarez ran on three main campaign promises – student quality of life, accountability, and relations between student government and the student body.

Oblena and Alvarez already have started putting their campaign goals into action by working with upper administration to ensure that student concerns are heard, organizing a variety of events that cater to different facets of student life, and developing permanent response trainings that they hope will spread to other organizations on campus.

The pair’s main goal is to bridge the gap between the student body and the student government by being more open about the projects they are working on and the information they have received from administration.

Alvarez said that the student body should expect an official statement from SGA in regards to school-wide concerns soon.

“I’m a big believer in fostering transparency, because with transparency comes open dialogue,” Alvarez said.

According to Alvarez, the majority of the initiatives were created with the purpose of listening to and advocating for students, as well as serving as a student body representative to the university. Without the input of students, Alvarez claimed that SGA would be unable to achieve any of their goals.

Alvarez said that she and Oblena intend to connect with the community more extensively, particularly with those who don’t feel heard on campus, by tapping into areas that student government does not already reach.

“We just want to make sure that students can be successful and know that we want to support them in their time here,” Oblena said.

Alvarez said that SGA has plenty of events planned for this upcoming semester. The majority of these will be returning events, such as Wolf Pack Wednesdays and Third Fridays, but there will also be a few new ones including college-specific meet-and-greets, Iggy’s Cupboard pop-ups, and a student-government-wide sexual assault response training.

According to Alvarez, the University Programming Board plans to host more online events this semester in response to multiple student requests.

Alvarez said that Directive Communications, the department in charge of SGA’s social media, is working hard to perfect the SGA website and make it more user-friendly, as well as planning monthly newsletters. They are also excited to release Loyola merchandise.

For information on all the events taking place on campus, Alvarez advised students to keep an eye on the SGA’s website and Instagram account.