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Syracuse University’s Student Association plans to begin its 68th session with ambitions to “expand its reach” and “increase student involvement and interaction” with the governing body, SA President German Nolivos and Vice President Reed Granger said.

Since the start of Nolivos’ and Granger’s leadership bid, the two have been focused on increasing student participation and registered student organizations’ engagement with SA. Upon winning, the executives, along with Comptroller Alexis Leach, launched a summer of preparation for the academic year, they said.

“This summer, we decided to really focus on the organizational aspect of (SA),” Nolivos said. “We want to hit the floor and run as soon as we get to campus.”

As SA’s new leadership prepared for the approaching semester, they knew they needed to simplify its internal operations, Leach said. She also said the association hopes to become a better resource for students.

To create a more concise internal system, the three executives have worked with a team of SA leaders to transfer archives and documents from Google Drive to Microsoft Sharepoint, consolidate the semester allocation request process for RSOs into a singular form and design training guides for new association members, they said.

“For the first time, I feel prepared to work on letting everybody know what Student Association is about. We want to let students know we are here,” Granger said.

As the fall semester begins, SA will also look to implement some of the tools that Nolivos, Granger and Leach developed over the summer, including regular feedback forms and heavier SA presence at campus involvement events, Granger said.

SA has also explored collaboration with the university in “shared experience sessions” during first year seminar classes, Granger said.

SA also plans to increase its online presence, both on social media and interacting with campus media groups, Nolivos said. He also said SA will begin sending press releases to campus media outlets about its activities, something the association has never done before.

As Nolivos and Granger work to extend SA influence and outreach, they said they also intend to fulfill their campaign pledge of the promotion of DEI through supporting historically marginalized students.

As student leaders who are members of minority groups on campus, Nolivos, Granger and Leach said they discussed their responsibility to represent the diverse population at SU over the summer. Nolivos said SA will use many of its tactics to increase student engagement to also meet diversity goals.

“Student Association cannot work without student input … we want to bring in people who are active in their communities,” he said. “The best way to get input is by having people from all different areas.”

With the start of the new school year, SA leaders will now move into the implementation phase of their academic year plans.

“Everyone is so happy to be (here) and so ready to get this year started and just make things the way we want to see them,” Leach said.

The first SA meeting of the fall semester will be on Monday, Sept. 9, Nolivos said.

Published on August 25, 2024 at 9:28 pm

Contact Duncan: digreen@syr.edu