By Stacey Axler<\/p>\n
This year, the Hood Student Government Association (SGA) is striving to become more accessible to the student body in order to present an open forum for ideas and activities posed in the Hood community.<\/span><\/p>\n The revamped mission statement of SGA reads, \u201cWe, the Hood College SGA, will listen to and advocate for students in order to bring a positive wave of change toHoodCollege.\u201d<\/p>\n SGA President Doug Raftery is planning to help the SGA executives and the student body as a whole work together to facilitate a \u201cwave\u201d of new ideas that will improve campus life.<\/p>\n \u201cA positive wave of change is doing activities that bring about ideas that past student government associations have not done.\u00a0 We want to do things outside the box,\u201d said Raftery.<\/p>\n SGA members this year have been actively involved in campus initiatives, such as the recent student concerns about Coblentz dining hall policies.<\/p>\n SGA sponsored a \u201cHot Topic\u201d meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 20 that focused on the changes and alterations to the dining hall regulations.<\/p>\n \u201c[SGA] felt like more people would attend the \u2018Hot Topic\u2019 meeting.\u00a0 Campus faculty is very willing to listen to student concerns,\u201d Raftery said.<\/p>\n The \u201cHot Topic\u201d meeting focused on the recent petition created to persuade the dining hall to re-instate the use of to-go boxes during dinner hours in the dining hall.<\/p>\n Lindsay Cogdill, the senior who headed the petition, said that her contact with SGA regarding the take-out boxes was helpful and productive.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s important for students to know that there are ways to change things if you want, you just need to know who to talk to,\u201d Cogdill said. \u201cIf you want to see a change, you should go talk to someone in the administration or SGA and make a case for that change.\u201d<\/p>\n SGA wants to find new and innovative ways to easily inform the student body about events and activities that SGA will sponsor throughout the year.<\/p>\n One such way SGA hopes to enhance communication within the student body better is to install a LED sign in theWhitakerCampusCenter.<\/p>\n This sign will be placed in a prominent spot in Whitaker and will showcase different SGA sponsored events occurring on campus.<\/p>\n \u201cThe SGA goal is to unite the campus community.\u00a0 [SGA] wants to sponsor at least four spirit events per year \u2026to have an exciting day for students,\u201d said Raftery.<\/p>\n To further reach out to the entire student body, this year the SGA offers one open Senate meeting per month at 1 p.m. so that commuter students can attend.<\/p>\n Along with the goal of uniting the campus as a whole, SGA members also want to reach out to students by talking to two people per day about SGA initiatives and to brand SGA through promotional publications.<\/p>\n SGA also is working on legitimizing nine new clubs for students to participate.<\/p>\n \u201cWith SGA this year, we want to have fun.\u00a0 We want the student body to know that [SGA] has their back,\u201d Raftery said.<\/p>\n Andrea Kidder\u00a0contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"