Written by Kyle Dawson, Sports Editor

SGA held their third meeting of the semester on Monday, Sept. 12, in which VSU Interim President Dr. Kelli Brown was in attendance and helped to induct six new freshmen into the senate.

Dr. Brown, who was the president of her grad student association while getting her master’s degree, said SGA is a perfect place for students to have their voice heard.

“SGA is very important from a leadership perspective,” Dr. Brown said. “Students can gain their leadership skills either through being a senator or an elected officer or heading up committees. Those leadership skills can be read about in books, but here students can actually put them in play. This is a great kind of a playground or sand box for students.”

Brown said that everyone on campus must work together to make the university thrive.

“When we think about shared governors on campus, we think about faculty, staff and students,” Dr. Brown said. “They’re all very critical, so we need to have all folks involved in the shared governors process and that’s the role that student government plays.”

SGA president Maya Mapp talked about an upcoming community service project SGA will sponsor regarding the upcoming election. At the end of Oct., SGA members will help work the polls in Lowndes County. Former VSU SGA vice-president Nick Buford will be coming to train current SGA members on how to help at the polls.

Later in the meeting, Mapp encouraged the senators and everyone else in attendance to visit Blazer Sports Grille, which has changed its meal exchange hours from seven to midnight to five to midnight.

Vice President Othellius Cato then spoke about the upcoming SGA retreat. The retreat, which will help SGA come closer together and to grow as an organization, will include a trip to CORE Outdoors’ challenge course.

Comptroller Erin Shaw then talked about some scholarships that SGA is sponsoring. The senate voted to give 75 dollars to contribute to scholarships in the future.

The next SGA meeting will be Monday, Sept. 19, at 8 p.m. in Student Union meeting room one.