The Student Government Association (SGA) hosted the final meeting of the semester, reflecting on the work they’ve accomplished and electing a new senator at large.  

Micayla McGowen, SGA president and a senior marketing major from East End, Arkansas, said she is very happy with what SGA accomplished this semester. 

“The main thing is that the housing scholarship and everything that came about with that is finally getting to a point that a good conversation is happening with it,” McGowen said. “So I’m very thankful for that. 

At the meeting, Asia Simmons, a junior social work major from Jacksonville, Arkansas, filled an open at large senator seat.

Simmons said she applied for the position because of encouragement from McGowen and her previous experience in SGA as secretary and chair of the Warren Harshaw Diversity committee at ASU-Beebe.

She said she sees a lot of what SGA does behind the scenes by working at the A-State leadership center, so she wanted to get back into SGA and serve A-State students.

“As a student leader at ASU-Beebe, I had a huge role in facilitating student events and being involved in our student population,” Simmons said. “I’m very appreciative of the students choosing me to serve with them and I’m so excited to serve the rest of my time here.” 

Simmons said she already has projects planned for the upcoming semester, one in particular is a project called “impact,” where it will provide the necessary information for students regarding Title IX and domestic violence. 

She said SGA could have a huge role in helping get information out about Title IX and offering a safe space for students. 

Louis Gonzalez, a sophomore biology major from Kansas City, Missouri, said the recently passed housing scholarship committee resolution has the potential to help a lot of people.

“I fought so hard for just the scholarship committee. I would say that out of everything that I’ve done this semester it is probably the most rewarding one, because I can continue to work with that and it can turn out to be something big,” Gonzalez said. 

McGowen said SGA is still finding the right direction to go with the housing scholarship, but she hopes students see more progress and impact come from the scholarship next semester.

Gonzalez said he plans on continuing to work on the housing scholarship during the Spring semester. 

“If I don’t do it, nobody else will, so I’m most definitely behind that. I’m rooting for that all the way so it doesn’t get abolished,” Gonzalez said. 

Gonzalez said students can expect progress when it comes to the housing scholarship next semester, but it probably wouldn’t be active for another year because there is a lot of foundational work that needs to be put in. 

Aside from the housing scholarship, he said there are problems with international programs that he would like to tackle in the near future. 

“There’s certain problems that international students face day to day that I feel like we can, as an organization, change to make it easier for them,” Gonzalez said. “There seems to be a big divide between international students and domestic students. Housing seems to be a big one.”

Another goal for SGA is to host more events for the campus.

McGowen said she is very passionate about mental health and wants to expand upon the work SGA has done for mental health next year. This semester, SGA created a mental health day for students. McGowen said she wants to create an iniative in SGA next year so students can have mental health days every semester. 

Additionally, she said she aims to create a mental health seat within SGA so someone can advocate for student mental health on campus.

The SGA president said students can expect many new and exciting ideas to be discussed at SGA in the upcoming spring semester.

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