By Abigail Zenko

With direct access to administration, the Student Government Association (SGA), centralized in Highland Campus, serves as an intermediary between students and faculty/staff, advocating for students who may lack voice or networking connections. 

Parliamentarian Lillian DeChaine said about SGA’s main goal as a student org, “We try to be that loud voice who’s not afraid to speak up for the students who don’t have that voice for whatever personal reason that they have. We don’t question the reason why you’re not speaking up. We just listen to your problems and want to speak up for you.”

Current main student concerns and initiatives include food accessibility or an affordable food pantry, trans-friendly bathrooms, cost of classes or financial aid, class availability across campuses, and better events & activities distribution across campuses.

“All of these [main student concerns] are conversations that have already been had,” Lillian said. “We only have so much power on what’s actually being pushed, but these are topics that SGA had conversations about in independent meetings.”

Treasurer Suyeon Hong added that a lot of these concerns either are being worked on or have been resolved. For example, trans-friendly bathrooms have been discussed in meetings with the Chancellor, and though no visible progress can be seen yet, work continues. Previous officers, especially those from last semester, have heavily advocated for this initiative.

With SGA assistance, the food pantry “Riverbat Bites” has been set up on multiple campuses, though many students are unaware of it. 

“[The food pantry] is something that I feel like isn’t talked about enough,” Lillian said. “It is accessible to all students, and there are tons of stuff in there. There’s rice, beans, pasta, diapers, toothbrushes, tampons, snacks, baby formula.”

Some of these issues are things SGA doesn’t have much control over, such as issues with class availability and cost. Proposals have been sent, but the decision is up to the Board of Trustees and Chancellor. 

Besides these ongoing efforts to amplify student voice toward ACC authorities, a focal project for SGA this semester, the Clothing Drive, aims to provide students with free access to clothes. Students and faculty are encouraged to donate clothes throughout the month at student life centers during operating hours in all ACC campuses except for Eastview. 

On the last Friday of each month, giveaway events will be held for students to take clothes for free. The first scheduled event is February 27.

Besides this, SGA hosts elections for officer positions. Though ACC historically has a low voter participation, extensive tabling efforts in the 2024-25 school year have caused a large jump in participation, including the election of current student officers. Officers tabled campus to campus, meeting students and building genuine connections, and even competing candidates worked together in a friendly, non-competitive atmosphere. Through these interactions, many students showed interest in getting involved. Officers plan to continue this approach for upcoming elections. 

Recounting the tabling efforts to birth a new generation of SGA members, Lillian said, “We weren’t just a bunch of friends that ran together; we were strangers. One would be tabling, and [another] would walk up and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re running for president? I’m running for this. Nice to meet you!’ And we all just ran together, and even people who were running against each other still were having the time of their [lives]. There was no animosity or competitiveness or anything. It was just super fun [and] friendly.”

For future leadership roles, officers like Lillian and Suyeon plan to stay another year to provide training. Through overlapping service, experience will be passed down, rather than starting fresh each year as Lillian and Suyeon had to experience when they first started the year prior. 

For the same reason, they are finalizing the SGA constitution to reduce ambiguity in the org rules and officer roles. Current participants in SGA will likely become future officers, as they already gained baseline experience. 

Future officers can expect real-world experience beyond just running a club, including out-of-state travel and networking opportunities. Lillian and Suyeon agreed that their officer roles gave them satisfaction from the org’s significant positive impact on the student body. Their main motivations for their officer positions came from their care for the student body and desire to contribute to the community.

SGA welcomes all students to participate, even as simply as attending general meetings to say hello. The organization is not as serious or intimidating as it may seem: students don’t need to be passionate about politics or government to participate. Current officers come from diverse majors, such as working President LeeAnn being a graphic design major. 

Students don’t need to share the same political views, ideologies, interests, or even be full-time – SGA is an inclusive space where all voices matter.