Student government candidates both agreed on increasing communication between the Student Government Association and the student body during their potential terms next fall, but had different opinions on how to do so.
At a debate on Wednesday night, presidential candidate Kiyah Merritt said she aims to focus on relationship building between SGA and organizations as well as safety across Loyola. Fellow presidential candidate Violette Worley said she wants to focus on three pillars: campus connection, affordability, and identity.
Merritt and her running mate Kamrin Jones said that if elected, they’d be focusing on looking inward at Loyola. That would mean creating initiatives such as free drink testing cards, holding open office hours in the hub for organizations, and providing resources to pre-professional students. Their goals overall are to be open with students about what’s going on in SGA as well as on campus.
When asked about the debate, Jones said their “emphasis on getting students out there, like with their small businesses and music” is something Merritt and himself want to work on. “SGA should be a vessel for students who want to work on their careers,” he said.
Presidential candidate Worley and her running mate Makayla Horton, on the other hand, are looking outward: they want to increase outreach in New Orleans, making Loyola’s presence known city-wide. On a student body level, they want to enact tangible change by creating syllabus banks or removing the $15 dollar charge for student IDs. They also argued for better emphasis on marketing SGA events in order to improve information retention for students, such as interactive social media polls.
“I want students to hear from us first hand,” Worley said. “Of course we have more initiatives than the ones we talked about tonight. A bigger one would be pushing for students to actually perform, or do the things that they’re good at…how can we get them to perform at halftime during basketball games?” she said.
Worley also said that outsourcing marketing for SGA by approaching different creative students for help with flyers or other promotional material is something she wants to do.
Though they have different views on how to specifically carry out their potential terms, both candidates strongly highlighted their individual desires to make the student body feel seen and included. Merritt and Worley expressed willingness to collaborate with the SGA Senate to accomplish this.
