Press Clipping: Utica College Student Senate makes significant changes

Student Senate makes significant changes

Morgan Golliver
October 27, 2017

The Utica College Student Senate has undergone many changes to start the Fall 2017 semester. A significant one was changing its name to the Student Government Association.

While it may seem small, Student Government Association President Ann Ciancia said the name change was substantial.

“Student Senate switched to Student Government Association this year because we wanted to add a house of organizations to our assembly part of government,” Ciancia said. “With the House of Organizations, we want to increase unity and create new collaborations with each other. I have implemented an organization mentor program where each executive board member gets a group of organizations and each organization goes to each other’s events and supports them.”

The name change also provides benefits for the organization.

“We also changed our name because we became a part of the American Student Government Association,” Ciancia said. “We get benefits from that membership through conferences.”

Student Government Association adviser Derek Pooley was excited by the recent changes.

“I believe that the Student Government Association adding the House of Organizations is a great thing,” Pooley said. “In the first meeting that we had, different organizations were talking about different events, asking for feedback and gathering ideas, which was really great. Of course, there is room to grow with this, but I was very excited with the feedback and interaction the different groups were having.”

Ciancia spoke on the organization’s message to UC students.

“SGA is the voice of students here on campus,” Cianca said. “We want to change the students’ lives for the better by promoting student leaders. We also are big on promoting unity and diversity.”

According to Ciancia, the Student Government Association also helps fund a majority of student organization events on campus.

The organization recently held a Defend DACA event to help inform students on what they could do to protect someone at risk of being deported as well as put on a candlelight vigil that helped raise awareness to victims of sexual violence. Ciancia stated that the Student Government Association is also looking to host a banquet in the spring.