By By: Kate Luce
Co-Editor-in-Chief
The IUSB Student Government Association (SGA) election results were announced on Wednesday, Sept. 9 for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Kayla Isenbletter won the presidency for the SGA. Rana Hamad won the Vice Presidency. Christian Martinez is Treasurer, and Daphne Galloway is Secretary. Naseem Alfadhl, Tahyia Rehman Alvi, Diana Baca Delgato, Kerri Clark, Benson Michael Jengela, Sara McMahon, Brent Newcomb, Amanda Parkinson, Cassandra Reyes, Brayden Serna, Eddice Faness Weaver and Taylor Worthington have all won spots as senators.
Out of 183 votes, students felt that the most important issue on campus is informing them how tuition and student fees are spent this year. The second main issue that needs to be addressed is what events and activities are happening on campus. Third, students want to know how to be financially literate. Lastly, students want to be informed of on-campus resources to help them graduate on time.
Isenbletter has been a part of the SGA for three years now. She was a senator and a parliamentarian before running for president.
“I’m very excited to be taking on the role of president. I’ve been involved in SGA for most of my college career and it’s something that I’ve become very passionate about. As president, you get to spend more time working with faculty, staff, and administrators on issues that affect the entire campus and get to participate in IU-wide committees, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to expand my influence as a student advocate and leader. I also think we have a great group of senators and executive members this year, and I’m looking forward to working with them,” Isenbletter said.
Her priority this year is to continue to build the campus community, which the SGA has been working on for the past few years.
“The student government has done a lot of work over the past couple of years to improve our internal processes, and now that we’ve done that we are able to look outside of our group and how we can make campus feel more like home for students. Making sure that students are aware of opportunities to be engaged on campus, ensuring student safety and being advocates for increased equity and inclusion and being a strong voice for student interests are all major priorities this year and every year,” Isenbletter says.
This year, the SGA will be running a little differently, much like many other organizations on campus. For at least the fall semester, all meetings will be conducted over Zoom and will be held on Fridays from 12 p.m.-2 p.m.
“Our members will have to complete some of their office hours online, since we can’t all be in there at once. We’re also going to have to be more intentional in the way we connect with students, since dropping in to classes and events will be much more difficult this year. Even though it is going to be difficult, I think we’re up to the challenge, and it might teach us different and better ways to do things that will make us a stronger organization even when things return to normal,” Isenbletter said.
In addition, this year’s elections will be held much earlier than usual. The SGA has also updated their constitution to ensure that every college at IU South Bend will be represented in the senate. This year, they are working to increase their social media presence, connecting more students to make them aware of the organization and how they can help.
