Peter Merrill, deputy news editor

As the school year comes to a close, the Berry Student Government Association (SGA) looks toward the fall where new faces will represent the student body. The new SGA executive board members were sworn in on Tuesday. Former SGA President, Asa Owens, will graduate in the spring, and the current vice president of administration, junior Joanna Clark, will take his place. Sophomore Ashley Baxter, former SGA secretary, is the vice president of administration for the 2022-2023 school year. 

Lindsey Taylor, vice president of student affairs and dean of students, has advised the SGA officers for the past four years and will continue to do so next year. Despite inhabiting an advisory role, Taylor emphasized that she does not encroach on SGA’s autonomy but serves as a sounding board and a coach.

“When you’re trying to think for a student body that is diverse on multiple different levels – diverse in thought, diverse in demographic – you’re not always going to make everyone happy,” Taylor said. “Sometimes that’s hard.”

Despite the difficulties that student government presents, SGA held many popular and successful events this year. Among these events were a night walk to identify dimly lit spaces on campus, several blood drives, the Mr. Berry event which raised $420 through ticket sales alone for charity, meet-and-greets with Spires residents, guest speakers at SGA meetings and Food for Finals. The next Food for Finals will be Apr. 27 at 9 p.m. in the Spruill Ballroom and will be luau themed.

Baxter said that she hopes to continue the work that SGA has done this year by expanding the Berry Bellhops, a program where upperclassmen help freshmen move in, and Mr. Berry programs and by installing both heavy bags in the Cage Athletic Center and lights in places indicated by the night walk. A third dining option selected by focus groups, Freshëns, will be added to the Viking Court as well.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of these events have not been held since the 2019-2020 school year, and their return has seen record breaking numbers.

“Only one person on the executive board was here before Covid to know what campus was truly like, so a lot of that was a learning experience for all of us to know what the real normal was that we wanted to help bring back,” Baxter said. “A lot of that was communicating with administration.”

Next year, SGA meetings will still be held at 7 p.m. in the Spruill Ballroom, but on a biweekly basis instead of every week at 7 p.m. in the Krannert Ballroom. At these meetings, Clark will continue to expand on SGA’s successes while implementing new changes.

“I always wanted SGA to be more involved in community service, and so I’m looking to add that kind of aspect to SGA class officers and SGA executive officers as well and seeing how we can incorporate that into Berry’s campus,” Clark said.

Taylor said that it was not just SGA officers that should be involved with student government, but all students at Berry.

“I wish more students would raise their hands to be a part of the committees, to even run whether it be class officer or executive officer,” Taylor said. “I am at just about every SGA meeting and I always learn, I take notes, I learn what students are thinking. I don’t talk much; it’s their meeting, not mine. The more student voices that I can hear, the better I can do my job, the better they can do their job. I wish more students got involved in it.”

SGA serves as a bridge between students and faculty that can only be strengthened by more student voices.