The New Face of SGA

The Student Government Association (SGA) elections ended recently. In order to kick off the event, SGA held a “Rock Hard, Vote Smart” event on the lawn of the University Center. With such a large event at one of the most traveled areas on campus its surprising that only 240 people voted. The winner of the SGA presidential race with 146 votes was SGA Senator Michael Frixon. Currently a sophomore, President Frixon began his involvement with SGA as a Senator in spring 2007 by being appointed by the then Vice-President Max Long and was reappointed in fall of 2007. He worked his way to become more involved with by becoming part of the elections commission proposing, and passing, constitutional amendments. One of the biggest impacts President Frixon made as a Senator was his work at addressing the issues facing students due to their academic advisors. President Frixon passed a resolution in an attempt to increase accountability for advisors of student organizations. This caused quite an uproar among the academic community. Advisers were offended by the accusations and said that it was the student’s who were the issue not the teachers. Following the controversial resolution President Frixon, who attended faculty senate meetings, saw the faculty noticing SGA more. However, the majority of issues he saw were not found outside of SGA but rather in its inner workings. While serving as a Senator, he saw the Senate moving in the right direction but felt that it still needed some changes. One of the other issues seen in SGA was with the executive staff. T SGA President Frixon derives his desire to run for the presidency from his strong stance on the issues important to the student body of Western Carolina University. Recently, Frixon even stepped down from the executive position of his fraternity, Kappa Sigma, in order to have more time to devote to SGA. Currently, he has several goals for the next semester and hopes to be ready for the upcoming fall 2008 semester. President Frixon hopes to create a new website for SGA in an effort to increase communication with the student body, an issue that is very important to the University as a whole and SGA in specific. Another issue Frixon is working on involves the organization of the SGA Senate. Frixton plans to call an emergency election at the beginning of the upcoming fall semester. The number of Senate seats will be decreased from previous year’s 50 or so to 33. The next senate will be elected by the student body, one of the nessicary steps toward making SGA more accessible to the student body. “I want to make all SGA representatives more accountable to their constituents,” Frixon said. The Vice Presidential position for SGA will also be changed from being the default head of the Senate and will be a more integral part of the executive branch. The Senate will now be tasked with electing a head Senator. It’s also a desire of Frixon’s to create the Inter Club Council, which will be the place for student clubs and organizations. The Inter Club Council will allow for better communication between the various clubs and student organizations produce more collaboration between groups. The new face of the student body is ready to hit the ground running and change Western’s Student Government Association for the better.