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New SGA Executives Discuss Goals For Next Year

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As the school year ends, so do the leadership terms for Georgia Tech’s Student Government Association (SGA). Students voted for new leadership in April, and SGA recently inducted those who were elected.

Pooja Juvekar, a third-year industrial engineering major, and Haigh Agnell, a third-year economics major, will helm the undergraduate SGA presidency and vice presidency, respectively. Narayan Shirolkar, a Ph.D. student in materials science and engineering, and Aroua Gharbi, a Ph.D. student in computational science and engineering, will fill the same roles for the graduate SGA.

Pooja and Haigh have been involved in SGA since their first year at Tech, both in the legislative and executive branches. They had an unspoken understanding that if they ever ran for leadership positions, it would be together.

Narayan and Aroua, like their undergraduate counterparts, have previous experience in SGA’s executive branch, and thought that being in leadership roles would help them tackle the issues they care about most. This past year, Narayan was the vice president of Graduate Conference Funds, and Aroua was the vice president of Graduate Life. Together, this gives them a shared background of working to improve graduate student life from both academic and student life perspectives.

Both pairs of executives have clear priorities for their terms. For Pooja and Haigh, their first goal is to draft a white paper for Georgia Tech’s next president, who will succeed outgoing President G.P. “Bud” Peterson.

“With a new president, we want to be prepared with a white paper that establishes bigger-picture student expectations and the vision that students have for [the president],” said Haigh. “We want to meet with them as soon as possible and hand them this paper to help them get acquainted with the Georgia Tech community.”

They also have plans to start an arts committee, bringing together representatives from campus arts organizations, as well as cementing a Campus Safety Advisory Board — an effort that began earlier this year with SGA leaders Evan Gillon and Ayo Aladesanmi.

Narayan and Aroua want to work on increasing the channels of communications between SGA and graduate students. They’ve already connected with student leaders from the College of Sciences and College of Engineering, and they plan on spending the summer reaching out to students from the other colleges.

“This would be key to getting a better response rate for surveys that we plan on doing over the year, as well as efficiently disseminating information regarding Institute-level policy changes and initiatives to the grad student body,” said Narayan. He and Aroua are also excited to start planning the first Grad Formal, to take place in Spring 2020.

Both groups also have plans to improve their organizations’ internal operations.

“I want SGA to be the most active that it’s been,” said Pooja. “I want it to be the most energized and engaged that it’s been.” She and Haigh want to increase SGA’s engagement and communication with the student body and let students know that they always have someone advocating for them. They also want to maintain the positive relationships that their predecessors built with faculty and administrators.

Narayan and Aroua have similar ideas, saying that they want an even more diverse set of graduate students involved in Grad SGA by this time next year. They also want to keep working with faculty and administrators to find a long-term solution for increasing the graduate student stipend levels and decreasing mandatory fees.

The element of their platform that Haigh is most excited to implement is the Traditions Keepers Council. The Traditions Keepers Council would bring together student leaders from the Ramblin’ Reck Club, Student Alumni Association, Student Center Programs Council, Athletics, and the Georgia Tech Marching Band to encourage all students to get involved in traditions from different communities across campus.

“I love Georgia Tech,” Haigh said. “I love the traditions that surround this school, but I think that not enough students know all the traditions within each student group.”

For each of the incoming executives, the opportunity to serve the school they love is an honor.

“I’m somewhat speechless — and I’m never speechless,” Pooja said.
Those interested in joining the executive branch of SGA should keep their eye out for committee applications, which will open at the beginning of the fall semester. Follow undergraduate or graduate SGA on Facebook for ongoing updates. More information about the goals of the incoming SGA executives can be found on Pooja and Haigh’s and Narayan and Aroua’s platforms, and anyone with questions for SGA can contact them through the undergraduate and graduate portals.

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  • Workflow Status:Published
  • Created By:gwyner3
  • Created:05/01/2019
  • Modified By:gwyner3
  • Modified:05/01/2019