By Jesse BadeStaff Writer

The Student Government Association seeks to connect with more of the student body this semester than it has in the past. To do this, its officers are looking to expand participation to represent a greater part of the campus community.
“One thing we want to stress is that, SGA is more than just a central Bank,” said Tevon Hyman, President of SGA. “SGA is an organization that looks at every aspect of the University and takes on issues that affect every part of the University.”
Student participation is linked to understanding how the organization functions, and getting the word out has been emphasized by the organization over the past few weeks, according to Hyman.
“Our real focus is trying to get the word out and have students join SGA,” said Hyman.
On September 13, SGA hosted a ‘Meet and Greet’ in the Mack Student Center Greenhouse in order to inform students about the group’s existence and how to get involved.
The planning and structure of the event worked perfectly, Hyman said: “Operation was smooth and we did it in a way that we could provide the information for all the students that were interested. . . [we] told them what SGA was all about.”
There was a satisfying turnout, said Hyman, and the senate is hopeful for greater student participation this year.
SGA is trying the build their organization through a series of steps this semester. The first of which is conducting newly instated fall elections, according to Vice President of SGA, Ron Singh. “We want good senators and it’s going to take more than just one election,” said Singh.
Last year, the Constitution Convention Committee decided that SGA would hold fall elections as an opportunity for incoming freshman to participate in their student body government. In previous years, elections have been held in the spring to decide the following year’s senate body—a first-year would have to wait until they were a sophomore to be able to vote, and as a result the University’s freshman class had little to no representation in its senators.
Ben Schaefer is the chair of the Rules Committee and is responsible for explanation the rules of elections to curious candidates. To Schaefer, the addition of elected freshmen to this year’s senate represents a large and welcome new source for creativity.
“Freshmen bring new ideas—any time you bring new people to a club, they definitely provide that. They come in enthusiastic and ready to work hard,” said Schaefer.
The two steps following the election involve more participation with clubs and a relationship between SGA and the Athletics Department at Hofstra.
Singh expressed that the basis of taking these small steps to build SGA would show the student body that SGA is here to make sure everyone is doing the right thing, and not watching over people.
Currently the focus of SGA members is their float, themed ‘N Sync, which they are corroborating with the fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi to build for Fall Festival. “Everything is going great we’re now working on the banner,” stated Hyman.
Melanie Perry, the project leader, said that with the few students they have and with the help of Alpha Epsilon Phi the float has been coming along great. They have been working on it from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day in anticipation for the event this weekend.
“I am very excited. I think it will be very nice to see all our hard work pay off,” Perry said.