One of Lipscomb’s Student Government Association’s aspirations is to help create an energized campus atmosphere every year. To SGA President Andrew Hunt, this year will hold plenty of exciting opportunities for LU students.
“I feel like it is our responsibility to make sure students have a good experience,” said Hunt, a Corporate Management senior from Centerville, Tenn. “We are going to provide events . We want people to have fun, but we want to provide spiritually uplifting opportunities and academically challenging opportunities, too.”
SGA is partnering with Residence Life and the Student Activities Board to bring bigger and better events to students on campus. Among this year’s anticipated events are Lipscomb’s annual Paint the Herd, a fall concert and a spring concert.
“We can have a whole lot more events [if we partner with Residence Life and SAB],” Hunt said, affirming that the events can be of better quality with the partnership.
“In the end, it’s not about if this is a SGA event,” Hunt said. “It’s about students having the opportunity to do this because SGA had a part in it.”
Students can be looking forward to this semester’s fall concert with Dave Barnes, which will be on Oct. 1 in Collins Alumni Auditorium at 7 p.m. The spring headliner will be announced at a later date.
Dining still a central focus for SGA
SGA has been pushing for off-campus meal plans for a long time. Patrick Grace, the 2012-2013 SGA President, officially announced the soon-to-be off-campus meal plans last year. This year, Hunt is proud to see the hard work pay off.
“We’ve been working toward that for years, so it is really awesome that it has finally come to fruition,” Hunt said.
Students are already taking full advantage of the plan, using their Bison Bucks at off-campus restaurants like Copper Kettle, Pizza Perfect and Which Wich. Hunt said there is potential for adding more restaurants to the list, depending on how this first year with the plan goes.
“There are some restaurants on the waiting list, and two of those are Chipotle and The Cheesecake Factory,” Hunt said. “Both would be incredible to have. The longer we have, the better it’s going to be.”
Hunt encourages students who are not happy with the new meal plans to voice their concerns to Lipscomb’s dining services.
“It means a lot for students to say stuff to people in Sodexo and people in administration and get their point across,” Hunt said. “[SGA] can only say stuff so many times, but when we have all these students saying what they want, it helps so much.”
Hunt hopes to help bridge the relationship between students, administration and SGA.
Hunt says his personal goal for SGA this year is to be more involved with students.
“I want to make SGA more available to the students,” Hunt said. “I want everyone to know our offices and the purpose of SGA. I want students to know that we’re here for them.”
Second to being open with students, Hunt said it is important to him to nurture a relationship with Lipscomb administrators.
“I want to find some way to get us to a good spot with administration so we can go in there and always have someone’s ear,” Hunt said. “I think a lot of problems will be solved if we do that. I think if communication is clear, then everything will be easier to solve.”
In the past, students have called on SGA for help with solving issues. Hunt said he hopes that solving problems can be handled in more of a collaborative manner.
“When administrators hear it from multiple students it means a lot more than just hearing it from SGA,” Hunt said. “Be proactive. [SGA] wants to be here if people run into any problems, but I think we can be a lot more effective if we all work together.”
SGA senate meetings are bi-weekly on Mondays at 7:30 p.m. and students are encouraged to attend if interested. Due to a change in location, no set meeting room has been determined, but students can contact Hunt or another SGA member for meeting information.