MARIETTA – The final general body meeting of the 2024-25 school year wrapped up for Kennesaw State’s SGA with the inauguration of Allisa George and Aliyah Johnson.
General body meetings typically serve as a way for the SGA to discuss key issues, but this one served as a way to say goodbye to veterans of the organization, and welcome newcomers.
Multiple members of the SGA executive board, including the Chief of Staff Ashley Tuminello, Vice President Keely Gerety and Attorney General Pranay Nair will soon be graduating, and were given SGA chords to commemorate the event.
A host of individuals were sworn into SGA, including multiple members of the new cabinet, as well as senators, including Lauren Davis for the Honors College and Matthew Gatewood for the Wellstar College.
While important, all of these events underscored the inauguration of President Allisa George, and Vice President Aliyah Johnson.
George and Johnson won a hard fought campaign last week against SGA Public Relations Chair Nyla Nelson, and her running mate, SGA Treasurer America Lopez in one of the more publicized elections in recent memory.
Their inauguration went on without a hitch, as they both read the SGA’s oath of office, before then swearing in several members of their new cabinet.
Outgoing members like President Taejah Goode and Vice President Gerety gave some final words of appreciation to the SGA members they’d worked with and welcomed the new administration.
George expressed her excitement following inauguration, but also said she was committed to “hitting the ground running,” on the work that her campaign was built on, even saying that she had meetings planned for the end of the week.
She specifically mentioned meeting with Dr. Eric Arneson, the Vice President of Student Affairs in order to figure out “who they need to contact for [their campaign pledges].”
George emphasized her goal was to connect the student body to the administration with active communication.
“…Working with university administration to see what steps do we have to do in student government, and really just rebuilding our relationship with [KSU President Kathy Schwaig’s] administration.”
Freshly elected SGA Vice President Aliyah Johnson said that developing connections with all students, regardless of major, and understanding their needs was her first priority.
She talked about focusing on traditional issue areas for students, “like housing, parking [and] meal plans,” while also putting work into developing their campaign ideas, like increasing study spaces on campus, and creating a centralized KSU app.
On her administration’s new cabinet, Thomas expressed optimism that the group would be “efficient and help [George and Thomas] achieve all of their goals.”
