Josh McCormack
News Writer
As the first month of the semester draws to a close, the new Student Government Association administration feels optimistic about reaching their campaign goals.
With the bang of the gavel from Vice President Corey Smith on Wednesday night, the semester’s third SGA meeting commenced. The meeting, which lasted just shy of 45 minutes, covered everything from updates on how each senator was promoting diversity in their committees, upcoming events and even outside student organizations spreading the word of their own missions.
Smith felt the meeting went very well and said the senior members of SGA are off to a very strong start.
“This meeting was largely still an introductory meeting,” Smith said. “However, our senior members have spearheaded initiatives like reaching out to student organizations and creating bonds that might not have existed before.”
SGA President Isaiah Green also said he believes that creating bonds with student organizations on campus is key to making sure his administration will be at its strongest. Another aspect Green was sure to promote was that of diversity and inclusion.
“I think inclusion is key,” Green said. “Diversity and inclusion are integral aspects to anything that works well. Our campus is not that diverse, but I think we have a lot of opportunities to improve. I’ve had a lot of conversations with Chancellor Cable about how when a student gets here, we try to get them to stay here.”
On top of promoting diversity and inclusion, the current SGA administration campaigned on a platform that included partial divestment from fossil fuels in 18 months, more funding to educational programs from Title IX and a more transparent SGA amongst other promises. At less than one month in, Green and Smith not only feel optimistic about where they are in reaching these goals but have also already found success in some areas.
“Partial divestment from fossil fuels was actually already accomplished,” Green said. “The resolution was passed with the Board of Trustees back in June and in the coming weeks we’re actually going to get an update from Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance John Pierce to hear how that’s going.”
Smith said SGA’s transparency to the UNC Asheville student body has also been a massive success so far.
“We’re trying to make everything as accessible as we can to the students,” Smith said. “So that means putting our minutes on our doors, posting online and sending out information to the different senators making it their duty to make it as accessible to the people they talk to as well.”
When it came to the funding of Title IX programs, Smith had less to say. However, Green remains optimistic with this prospect as well.
“We’re working on Title IX as we speak,” assured Green. “Through the work of our student affairs committee and on campus advocacy groups like Period, we are seeing where we can move forward throughout the year.”
One of the strengths Green and Smith were sure to talk about is the strength of their own relationship throughout the starting weeks of this SGA administration.
“In the SGA office, Isaiah and I’s desks are about eight steps away from each other,” Smith said. “We love working together. It’s genuinely easy to communicate with Isaiah because we’re both very much on the same page. We communicate a lot by emails, because sometimes the way our schedules are laid out just don’t allow us to meet in person all the time. But there’s nothing we plan that goes uncommunicated.”
In terms of Green’s feelings toward his working relationship with his VP, his answer was a bit more simplified.
“It’s great,” said Green. “That’s really all I can say that hasn’t been said. It’s just great.”
The fellow SGA members have also taken notice of their president and vice president’s strong working relationship throughout the first three meetings. Senior Sen. Sean Nadasky has been a member since his freshman year. He feels that there’s a new sense of excitement that comes with the current administration.
“What excites me most about this administration is that Corey and Isaiah just click really well,” Nadasky said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a president and vice president with the sense of shorthand they have in all my four years in the SGA. They really work off of each other in a strong way.”
Nadasky also has high hopes for what the administration can bring to his committee in SGA.
“I’m in the sustainability committee and I feel that Corey and Isaiah really feel passionate about sustainability on campus, which is always a plus,” Nadasky said. “Our committee just had our second meeting and I think our administration is really going to lead us in a strong, new direction. We have some good relationships with other clubs we can talk to and I’m feeling very optimistic for the rest of this semester.”
