Kennesaw State’s Student Government Association (SGA) election season is underway, with campaigning officially ending yesterday, the 21st. Presidential candidates look to replace current SGA President Taejah Goode, and his vice president, Keely Gerety, both of whom are seniors.
The Elevate KSU ticket is headed by sophomores and Honors college members Allisa George as the presidential nominee and Aliyah Johnson, the vice presidential pick.
Their platform included the statement “Our mission is simple: Make SGA work for YOU,” referencing their commitment to greater student support from SGA.
“My platform that I’m running on is Elevate KSU and what that means is that we want to make sure that KSU is growing, improved and elevated for the student body,” said Allisa George, Elevate KSU presidential candidate.
She spoke on the three main campaign goals of her ticket’s platform. First, Elevate KSU wants to increase study spaces on campus. Second, she emphasized their goal is to create a single KSU app that works to aggregate all of the school’s resources into one place. Their third and final campaign goal is to increase campus engagement and foster more KSU pride among the student body.
George made reference to why greater access to study spaces is so important to the campaign.
“A lot of students have told us how hard it is to find study spaces on campus and, oftentimes, this is really concerning because a [large] percentage [of students] we have are commuter students.”
She shifted her focus to the KSU app she aims to create if elected.
“…we want to have an overall centralized KSU app that helps students have a one stop shop to all the resources that KSU has to offer.”
Speaking on how the app may address student concerns, she said, “A lot of times, when we encounter students they’re like ‘oh I wish KSU has this’ or ‘I wish KSU had this,’ all the while, KSU has it, it’s just the information is really hard to find.”
George continued, saying, “KSU provides a lot of resources for student success and having a centralized app would really help students to be able to find all of this information on there.”
Next she commented on her third campaign “ticket,” Increasing campaign engagement and fostering campus pride.
“We want to make sure that students feel proud that they go to KSU, and that they don’t just view KSU as a commuter school.”
George explained that this would be accomplished through the creation of more SGA sponsored events with clubs on campus. She believes that this would lead to a greater sense of belonging among the student body, as greater community could be created through events like this.
George spoke about the importance of getting to work quickly if elected.
“We plan on starting on day one. We plan on contacting all of the relevant administrations who are in charge of increased study spaces and who are in charge of an overall KSU app and really communicating with student affairs and making sure that we’re both on the same page.”
On the topic of experience and qualifications, George spoke to the accomplishments of herself and her running mate.
“We both have advocated for various initiatives for the constituents that we represent that have actually turned [actionable].”
She explained that Aliyah Johnson, her running mate, in her capacity on the Honors Advisory Council, has consistently advocated for more study spaces for Honors students.
George lauded her own accomplishments, including the SGA’s Feel Good Friday event last semester, which she spearheaded. Additionally, she spoke on her work adding concentrations in the Wellstar College as their senator in the SGA, which she reported is in progress.
“We have a track record of leading impactful initiatives. We have a track record of working with administration, figuring out next steps and having actionable items,” she said.
Elevate KSU’s campaign material mentioned several reasons the ticket is running for office, with “Increasing transparency” being one of the most notable.
George made reference to past shortcomings of the SGA, saying, “In the past, SGA hasn’t had a good track record with being accountable towards the students. It hasn’t been really accessible and it hasn’t been promoted really well.”
She said that their goal is to increase SGA’s reputation in the student body through encouraging senators to hold town halls, hosting events and building “rapport” with their constituents.
She also said that the Elevate KSU name and Instagram is more than just a campaign, and, if they’re elected, will be used as a way to bridge the gap between the student body and the SGA’s president and vice president through regular updates about their work.
“Fostering a stronger KSU community” was another highlight of the campaign’s materials.
George spoke about how many KSU students don’t feel a sense of community or belonging in the university. She said that not having that could impede graduation at the university, making it a critical issue to address for the campaign.
“I feel like students should have a right to feel proud of where they go to school. I feel like a lot of the time KSU has this reputation of just being a commuter school or a transfer school, but that shouldn’t be the case,” she said.
She explained that she didn’t view that reputation as fair because of how much the school has to offer, from great faculty to scholarship opportunities.
She proposed having community events where students can get to know each other and appreciate the university more.
SGA Public Relations Director Nyla Nelson and SGA Treasurer America Lopez are behind the Legacy KSU presidential campaign, with Nelson running for president, and Lopez as vice president.
Nelson emphasized the vast experience in student organizations that she and her running mate had when asked what made them qualified candidates.
“Me and my running mate both have…been on E boards and we’ve been in those higher leadership roles, but we’ve also been those students that have just been members of an RSO or members of a club sports team.”
She also spoke on how being part of SGA for several years has allowed the two of them to have a better understanding of the needs of the student body.
Nelson emphasized transparency and accessibility from the SGA and increasing parking spaces on campus.
She characterized the campaign’s idea of greater accessibility and transparency with greater in person involvement from student government.
“[Outreach would involve] not only posting on the Instagram page, but also physically going out to these places and going to these events and getting to know each student on a student by student basis,” she said.
She continued, adding, “Also increasing student well-being. So focusing on mental health awareness, and ensuring that all students around campus are being heard.”
She spoke on why the campaign is placing some focus on longer term goals like increased parking by saying “…Our main focus is on leaving a legacy that puts students first at KSU.”
Nelson spoke on the general lack of engagement that much of the campus has with the SGA. She highlighted how “there’s only so many Instagram posts you can post” if most of the student body is still not very connected with the organization. Because of this, Nelson wants to take SGA events in a new direction.
“Yes, we’re gonna have events, but we don’t want to get into the business of only just having events, but we want to be able to find the balance between having events and still being able to advocate for the student body,” she said.
She continued, saying, “So [we want to] have events that are also fun, but are also about, ‘what do you want to see from us?’ ‘What do you want from us?’”
Nelson said she intends to plan out SGA’s entire event schedule over the summer in order to make sure the organization’s plans can run more smoothly.
The expansion of town halls and more personal communication between the student body and the SGA is a priority for the Legacy KSU campaign.
“…I want the student body to feel more inclined to come speak to us,” she said.
The SGA holds regular general body meetings, but Nelson spoke on the idea that the meetings are not very accessible to students, and most students don’t even really know what goes on in them.
Nelson said that a goal of the campaign was to provide more information on these meetings and the results that come from them to the student body, with the goal of more students attending and participating in them.
She emphasized the unique opportunities general body meetings offer for students, saying, “We have Parking, Housing, Dining Campus Services [administrators] come and speak…you can ask them any question or tell them about any issue that you have going on around campus and they will come and help fix that.”
Nelson said that she’d like to have Campus Services come and speak at these meetings multiple times a semester, giving students ample opportunity to speak with them.
On the topic of longer term goals, Nelson spoke about wanting to increase parking, starting with an anecdote about her bad experiences with parking at the school.
She mentioned how she’d “missed class before because of a parking issue,” and that she didn’t want that to ever happen to students.
Proposing the creation of another visitor lot, Nelson said that he first priority was hearing out the student body and that, if students, for example, were more supportive of another parking garage instead, that’s where her advocacy would shift.
She used the example of a longer term initiative like another visitor’s parking lot to reemphasize her commitment to transparency with the student body, saying that would want to be able to “ensure that the student body knows what steps we’re taking as we’re taking them.”
This would be done either through events or social media, where the SGA would walk students through the exact conversations that’re being had with administrators and any progress being made on initiatives.
Nelson spoke on what her plan for opening talks on expanded parking would involve, saying, “I’ll start with campus services [and see what steps we can take after that].”
Additionally, she expressed the desire to speak with “higher ups” in the university, including President Schwaig.
She again spoke on the importance of transparency, making reference to times when students have brought issues to the SGA or administrators and failed to receive a follow up. To Nelson, this is an unacceptable state of affairs, and something Legacy KSU is committed to improving.
Finally, Nelson spoke to how the administration plans to divide its time between goals that are more achievable right now, like greater transparency from the SGA, and longer term goals, like increased parking.
“I would definitely say an even split,” she said. “I plan on delegating tasks to everyone amongst the E board and the Senate [so that] it will be so much of a collaborative effort that we’re going to be able to get a lot of things started off the ground, even for [future projects],” she said.
Issues of greater transparency and cooperation have emerged as common themes of both presidential campaigns this year. It will be up to the student body to decide which vision for Kennesaw State University wins out.
