Wallace, Fleck elected SGA president, vice president
Wallace, Fleck elected SGA president, vice president
The pair of sophomores spoke with The Collegian about plans for their administration.
As the academic year draws to a close, Bethel’s Student Government Association (SGA) must prepare for the upcoming year, which includes electing a new president and vice president.
In an email sent to students on March 30, the SGA announced that sophomores Hayden Wallace and Matthew Fleck have been elected by the student body as the SGA’s next president and vice president, respectively, beginning next fall.
“I have the leadership skills, I definitely have the charisma, and pairing all that together, I just — why not,” Wallace, a Moundridge native, said.
“I ran because I felt I had enough good quality leadership skills to be able to lead this and I’m also familiar with Robert’s Rules and can help implement it,” Fleck from Cherokee said. Robert’s Rules are the decorum standards for SGA operation. “And then I ran with [Wallace] because we thought we’d be able to work well together,” he added.
With big goals in mind, Wallace is set to become the first SGA president with the opportunity to serve two terms since his older sister, Alayna, served in the role as a junior in 2019. “It’s just a Wallace thing I guess,” said Wallace.
Looking at the long-term plan, Wallace intends to take it issue by issue.
“If you look at it, like ‘wow, I have two years to do this, this, and this,’ you start to realize that almost everything in SGA just kind of pops up out of nowhere,” Wallace said. “So, thinking super long term, there’s not really a ton I want to do.”
The pair already has plans for the upcoming year, some of which are a continuation of the SGA’s goals for better communication between the student body, the SGA, and the Bethel College administration.
“Part of our goal is to branch senate and student communication,” said Fleck. “That way we can work primarily for what students want to see changed on campus. I think the first thing we have to worry about before we worry about communication between SGA and administration is [communication between] students and SGA. That way we know what we’re advocating for with administration.”
“A bridge between students and SGA more comes in the communication aspect of that bridge,” said Wallace. “Because as it stands, if you don’t know SGA people, then you just probably don’t know where to find them.”
This effort has provided the SGA with a commuter lounge and a new designated office space in the Administration Building. Here, students will be able to find SGA members taking shifts during office hours so that a member of the SGA is always available to the student body.
“The two rooms we were given in the Administration Building, I think that’ll be our primary goal, especially the commuter lounge,” Wallace said. “But also getting an SGA office up and rolling since we’ll have SGA members having hours so they can be in there to answer questions or talk to students — as well as get a conference space set up in there so that clubs can go in there and have meetings.”
As the end of the year rapidly approaches, the SGA has been working to wrap up loose ends and projects. As of now, Wallace and Fleck intend to keep working through the changes to the SGA’s setup as a result of the new constitution and working with the judicial branch to implement these.
“With the new constitution, we’re changing up how we’re doing our committees,” Fleck said. “We’re just trying to kind of wrap up everything and brainstorm a little bit going into next year, figure out what our plan is, but also reach out to students a little bit and see what they would like to see changed and be able to work on that.”