Andrew Fairburn is a junior majoring in healthcare analytics who currently serves as SGA’s director of environmental affairs.  

Q: How did you get involved with SGA? 

A: “So last year I applied to Madeline Martin’s cabinet. I’m currently serve as the director of environmental affairs. I applied with her, she appointed me and then I was confirmed by the Senate.” 

Q: What made you want to run for the VP of Student Affairs? 

A: “So I’m a [junior], and my freshman and sophomore year, I wasn’t very involved on campus. It was a little bit difficult to get involved with COVID. And so with that being said, this year, I just can’t see myself not serving [the] student body in some manner. And I thought that this is the best position for me.” 

Q: Why are you the best choice for this position? 

A: “I think my seniority as well as my experience serving in the Executive Council or exceeding a cabinet play into that. In terms of my seniority, I think that it just shows voters I have nothing to lose or to gain by serving the student body; I truly just want to serve. And then with my experience from serving on the Executive Council, I think that it gives me a level of knowledge that maybe other people do not have. And I want to continue to use that knowledge to better serve the student body.” 

Q: How do you plan to improve the student experience for all communities on campus? 

A: “So I plan on implementing the [BamaAsks] director back to my cabinet, and doing this will allow us to incorporate a day where we go out on campus and ask the student body questions regarding transportation, academics, athletics, you name it, we have questions that we’re going to ask them, and we then will use the questions and the answers that we received from students to better understand what students want on our campus.” 

Q: How do you plan on increasing SGA transparency? 

A: “I think that it’s important to effectively communicate between the three branches in the SGA. This past year, I feel like there were times where I didn’t effectively communicate with the members of both judicial and legislative branches. And so, I think opening lines of communication will not only increase transparency, but also further the mission statement of students serving students.”  

Q: What’s your No. 1 goal with this position? 

A: “Definitely amplify student voices as the next vice president for student affairs. This will be my goal in everything that I do. Like I said in one of my previous answers, [BamaAsks] is going to be one of my main platform points that I want to push and implement on campus so that as many student voices as possible will be heard” 

Q: What’s one last thing you want voters to know about you? 

A: “I want voters to know that I’m here to serve them. In my opinion, service is one of the key pillars of leadership. I think that service first has to be well defined, and I plan on serving in any way possible to enhance the experiences that any student can have on our campus.”