Each year, student government executive board positions are up for grabs, and this year, Redhawks from several colleges were selected for those executive roles.

Integrated marketing communications junior Layla Bouzihay has been a part of SGA for three consecutive years and was elected as the 2021-2022 SGA president.

Since joining SGA, Bouzihay said she has had the ambition of becoming president, and with the help of SGA, she was able to gain the leadership skills to pursue the position.

“I came into college wanting to be president, but as a freshman, I didn’t really know what that meant,” Bouzihay said. “Being in this organization for three years has helped cultivate my ability to be a leader that this campus deserves.”

Bouzihay said she will strive to facilitate unity on campus in the upcoming year.

SGA gives students the opportunity to voice their perspective on ways to enhance the Redhawk experience on campus.

The entire student body votes on president, vice president and treasurer of the Student Government Association. The secretary, chief of staff, parliamentarian, studentless chair, special projects chair, University Affairs chair, and diversity and inclusion chair are appointed by the president.

SGA works collaboratively with the university administration to support Redhawks and negotiate pressing matters and unique opportunities for the university.

One way of doing so is making sure the Senate is in a good environment, SGA's vice president-elect Nolan Knupp said.

“I want to make sure senators can feel free to speak about their opinions of other constituents,” Knupp said. “I want to make sure the Senate is a good environment, because at the end of the day, the students' voice is what matters, so just creating that environment to make sure senators can speak freely is really important.”

Knupp is a junior studying biomedical sciences with minors in chemistry and human resource management. He has been a part of SGA for three years, recently holding the position of senator for the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

SGA’s 2021 executive board officers for the fall semester plan to advance the organization with new opportunities.

Treasurer-elect Sophie Machen said she hopes to focus on partnering with organizations to help with funding for the upcoming semester.

“We have so much money that can be used to help organizations fund events, go to conferences and pretty much anything they can justify a money request for,” Machen said. “There are so many organizations that don’t utilize it or don’t know about it.”

Minutes and agendas for SGA Senate meetings can be found on their webpage at semo.edu/studentgov/index.html. The Arrow streams the weekly meetings every Monday at 8 p.m. on Facebook Live.