As the executive vice president for the 2009-10 academic year, Meg McCrummen said she sought to empower the SGA senate.
McCrummen said she has sought to ensure that senators can have their visions materialize for the benefit of the student body.
McCrummen said she has led the senate through a fruitful year of action and legislation.
“I didn’t want to play a passive administrative role,” McCrummen said. “My role as executive vice president has been to help senators accomplish their goals, and I actively looked for any needs that they had.”
McCrummen said the senate serves as a crucial liaison between the student body and the administration, and as a consequence of that fact, she said she has helped senators to develop leadership skills and connected them to the right administrators who could work with them on carrying out their ideas.
McCrummen said she met with senators for a one-on-one discussion to talk about their vision for the year.
“They would have ideas but would have no idea where to start,” McCrummen said.
Looking back over her year in office, McCrummen said the senate has passed many beneficial pieces of legislation that have positively impacted the student body.
She mentioned the RAGE Scholarship, which raised money by inviting Tim Reynolds, who has performed with Dave Matthews, to Tuscaloosa, by inviting 15 vendors from Tuscaloosa to provide samples of their food on the Quad and by making hot air balloon rides available at $15 to the public.
She also said they founded the SGA Service Awards, which was a pilot program for a scholarship fund that awarded students $50 who had a record of community service.
McCrummen, who took criticism in January for traveling to Pasadena, Calif., using SGA funds, said the issue of transparency was brought to the forefront, but the response of the senate to the incident reveals how responsible this past year’s SGA has been.
“It just shows how responsible and reactive we’ve been this year because we put together an ad hoc committee to conduct a thorough review of the Code of Laws,” McCrummen said.
McCrummen said that in addition to overseeing the actions of the senate, she has worked closely with the First Year Council, a group of 50 freshmen who represent their residence halls.
According to McCrummen’s year-end report, the First Year Council’s projects ranged from improving communication with students through their Web site, fyc.ua.edu, to installing Redbox movie rental stations in dormitories to improving BamaBound Orientation for incoming freshmen.
Olivia Hanceri, secretary of this year’s First Year Council, said McCrummen was a crucial resource to rely upon.
“She oversaw every meeting, helped us to write resolutions, and served as a source for brainstorming,” Hanceri said.
McCrummen said she wants to see the SGA develop a closer relationship with the state government.
“Many consider the SGA to be a launching pad into state government, and so it’s silly when there’s minimal interaction with that government,” McCrummen said. “Don’t get me wrong, the responsibility of the SGA is first and foremost with students, but we need to find a better way to have a closer relationship with our state legislators in Montgomery.”
