The SGA has two months remaining, and officers say they are not slowing down.
“The Student Government Association is looking forward to the upcoming months and eager to finish out the term on a strong note,” said Steven Oliver, SGA president. “We will begin many projects along with continuing projects from the fall semester.”
One of the projects includes Executive Vice President Meg McCrummen’s SGA service awards. The awards would allow students to receive a $50 credit on their student receivables account after registering 10 hours of community service on SLPro.
“It began as an idea to get students an opportunity to alleviate some of those charges that show up on the student account,” McCrummen said. “It is important because we can now alleviate any financial stress we can.”
The SGA is working in partnership with the SUPe Store and the Community Service Center to make the program work.
“The SUPe Store gave us a $2,000 grant, so this is a pilot program,” McCrummen said. “The continuation of it will be contingent on its effectiveness.”
Miriam Fry, a senator in the college of arts and sciences, said the original idea of the program was in Kendra Key’s platform.
“[It was] an option for students to opt out of parking tickets by doing community service, and we modified it to have this $50 credit.” Fry said. “You don’t have to have a parking ticket to eligible you don’t have to have any charges on your account.”
Fry said the SGA is working on the program’s publicity and that it should launch in the next few weeks.
Other projects include the minimester, an idea of Oliver’s, where students will be able to pick up an extra class to fulfill hour requirements needed.
Other SGA officials said they are working on continuing projects, such as Tyler Valeska, vice president for student affairs, who is trying to reformat the spring football ticket sales online by working with athletics and student input.
James Fowler, vice president for external affairs, and Harris Hagood, executive adviser, are working with Oliver to implement Partnership Tuscaloosa, an organization to connect the three colleges in the Tuscaloosa area.
Oliver said the SGA looks at every project, making sure that it can benefit the student body in some way.
Officials said the SGA is also preparing for the transition of members and upcoming elections in March.
“We will work with the elections board to prepare for the upcoming elections in March, but we will begin to transition after a new group of elected officers are in place,” Oliver said.
