Warren Wilson Sets a New Path for Student Government Association
Eli Styles | September 6, 2023
In our current tumultuous political climate, governance is a frequent topic of conversation amongst anyone with access to the news. This is especially true at a school like Warren Wilson College (WWC), where each student has made a commitment to community engagement, justice and leadership.
In April of 2023, an interest meeting was held for those looking to participate in the Student Government Association (SGA) at WWC. This meeting, held by Dean of Students Tacci Smith and SGA co-presidents Sophia Rowe and Mae Craig, served as the catalyst for the resurgence of student government at WWC.
Now, after a few months of hard work, students are left wondering what lies ahead for the SGA. According to some, class committees are going to be instrumental in the organization’s future.
“What I like about class committees is that they provide unity for students who don’t identify with a certain group on campus,” Smith said. “We talk community [at WWC], but we don’t always live it. We don’t see it. So class committees are a great way for students to get involved with the SGA without having to commit to a position.”
The new WWC president, Damian Fernández, has also created committees that students will be appointed to through the SGA. This is part of the shared governance structure at WWC, the goal of which is to more evenly distribute governing power within the school among students, faculty, staff and the president’s cabinet.
With all of these committees in place, the hope is that student concerns will not only be heard but be received and seen through to a solution.
“There needs to be a place where you can come and be like, these are my concerns, and the people who can get those concerns heard will hear them,” Rowe said, a senior at WWC running for re-election as co-president. “It sucks when people are complaining about things that, if we could communicate, we could fix. So I guess that’s the point of the SGA, to explore all avenues to communicate instead of being frustrated.”
However, the SGA will not have much of a future without increased student participation. When it rebooted in the spring semester, attendance was averaging around 10-15 people per meeting. Both Rowe and Ellie Teweles, a sophomore at WWC and a nominee for co-president, spoke about this.
“I would like a lot more attendance,” Teweles said. “It’s a very small group of people for a very small school to begin with. But we’ve been talking about the possibility of town hall or workshops, getting more people and their voices in.”
On a similar note, Rowe would like people to view SGA as an investment in the WWC community. She also stated that she and other SGA members are very interested in ensuring that the SGA provides representation for students of color on campus at this predominantly white institution.
“There’s a problem where students of color are putting so much into this community that there’s this idea that there’s not enough energy leftover for them to be represented in SGA like they wanted,” Rowe said. “But I think there’s a responsibility on anyone who is on a committee and representing their students to do their best to represent not just their own interests.”
Members of the SGA have confidence that the organization will have a significant positive impact on WWC in the upcoming years, both in terms of community and institutional changes.
Teweles wants to make changes to the Work Program and to the campus itself in order to make it more accessible to disabled or sick students.
“The Work Program doesn’t really accommodate students with disability or injuries or sickness,” Teweles said. “Something recently that I’d love to bring up and that I’m going to use in my campaign—sick COVID leave was taken off the Work Program handbook, so students will no longer be compensated if they can’t make it to work.”
These things and many more constitute the future of the SGA—as does the upcoming election.
The election will be held from Sept. 11-14. If you are curious about the presidential nominees, a candidate panel will be held on Sept. 10 from 5:30-7:00 p.m. in Canon Lounge.
There will be an SGA meeting on Sept.11 at 6 p.m. in Canon Lounge. A review will be available online afterward. Regular SGA meetings are held on Mondays at 7 p.m. in Sage Cafe.