The 2024-2025 Student Government Association administration headed by president Micayla McGowen was sworn in Tuesday after running unopposed. 

The new SGA ticket ran under the slogan “The Next Step Forward,” which McGowen said focused on enhancing A-State in a useful and cohesive way. 

The McGowen/Williamson ticket ran uncontested, however, they still tabled to connect with students. 

McGowen, a junior marketing major with a minor in strategic marketing from East End, Arkansas will serve again as the president of SGA. 

McGowen said one of her main foundations will be trying to be a voice for the students. 

“That’s why we tried to talk to as many students as we could. We’re supposed to be the voice of the students so how are we supposed to be the voice of the students if we don’t talk to them.” McGowen said. 

McGowen said she wants professors to make amendments in their syllabus that have an artificial intelligence policy on how little or how much it can be used in class. She said it would protect students and faculty from issues since the policy would be clearly stated. 

To do this, McGowen said she plans to meet with all of the deans to see if they could enforce an AI amendment. 

Ahniya Williamson is a senior pre-med biology major from Nashville, Arkansas. Williamson is the new vice president of SGA. 

Williamson joined SGA as a first-year student; however, she had to leave in the fall of 2023 because of a class conflict, until McGowen invited her to run for the SGA presidential race. 

Williamson said that the formation of the whole ticket was done by trying to locate voices from as many communities as possible. 

“Let’s find somebody who can represent this community, somebody who’s Greek, somebody who’s not Greek. That type of thing to make sure that we have a good staff of diverse people,” Williamson said. 

Williamson and McGowen will also focus on installing mental health days into the academic calendar. These would be days where all of the A-State facilities run but classes are canceled, allowing students to visit the Wilson Counseling Center or tutoring while still having a day of rest. 

To accomplish this, McGowen said she would meet with the Academic Calendar Advisory Committee.  

McGowen said taking days from the newly proposed mid-semester break could be a way to implement these days into the calendar. However, that break is a tentative addition and SGA will still have to work to get the mental health day added. 

“I was told that the possibility of using one of those days as a mental health day would be highly possible as long as we put in the right effort and the right motivation to actually make it happen,” McGowen said. 

Braden Ross, a junior pre-professional biology major from Nashville, Arkansas, is the chief of staff chair. 

Ross said that, for him, the slogan “The Next Step Forward” will be about helping new senators on SGA get a handle on how SGA works. 

“I know many senators don’t know how to make (resolutions), so it’s kind of providing the support that the Senate really needs to get what we need to get done,” Ross said. 

Another issue that Ross said he wants to focus on is kindling a better relationship between professors and students, starting in the Beck College of Science and Mathematics.

“Professor comes in, lectures, leaves. I want to foster a better kind of advising situation within our college,” Ross said. “To have the professors check in more with the students instead of just once for registration.”

Ross said that to do this he would most likely begin by meeting with the chairs of the departments.

“It would be a really good thing to keep people in their majors, to keep them accountable, to keep them moving forward and to keep them doing what they want to do and being successful in what they want to do in their future,” Ross said. 

The new ticket led Tuesday’s meeting after being sworn in.

Senate committee positions were also filled. The names and positions are listed below: 

President Pro-temp – Johnathan Schaufler

Action Fund Commissioner- Louis Gonzalez 

Campus Collaboration Commissioner – Emma Martin 

Continuation Commissioner – Ian Butler 

Excursion Chair – Anna Thompson 

Sustanibily Liason – Nicholas Sides 

Local Government Repersation – Jake Williams 

Sergeant of Arms – Rocco Hicks 

Two senator seats were filled. Rose Farmer filled the graduate senator chair and John Volpe filled the Military Sciences seat. 

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