Jianna Figueroa
Contributing Writer
With a new year comes a new name—at least for ESU’s Student Senate. As of January, the Senate is now officially called the Student Government Association or SGA.
This decision was presented to the executive board of Senate last semester by their Vice President Darian Cruz.
Once the team was on board with making the transition, the Senate went through the process of changing their name in their constitution. SGA then decided to release this new label at the very beginning of the new semester.
“We wanted to make ESU’s Senate more visible and to change the dynamic from how it has been in the past years,” Cruz said.
The motive behind this change was not only to better themselves but the University as well.
“When people come to ESU and they try getting involved they don’t know what a student Senate is but they know what a student government is,” Cruz said.
“[The name] helps them in finding us and helping us to build our network and reach out to students,” Cruz said
Cruz felt by changing the name he would be leaving his legacy behind.
“Along with the conference that President Juju put together at the beginning of the year, I wanted to do something that would be known as me leaving my mark and that was to be able to change the name,” Cruz said.
Their inspiration derives from a conference they attended last semester at Bloomsburg University. This conference allowed student governments from all different universities to come together and share how their groups work.
While at the conference Cruz recognized ESU was the only university whose group that was still labeled as Student Senate in all of the PASSHE schools.
“We wanted to follow in suit with other universities in the PASSHE system who have changed their name,” Cruz said.
By changing their name Cruz is certain ESU will now have a better understanding of SGA’s purpose and will hopefully be able to attract more students to not only understand their role but feel eager to join.
“There always comes a time where we need to rebrand and it was Senate’s time,” Cruz said. “It is our turn to let go of the old, not forget it, but let go of it and re-vamp and become a fresh new SGA.”
Email Jianna at:
jfigueroa3@live.esu.edu
