Marshall University’s Student Government Association’s first meeting of the spring semester Tuesday provided a promising outlook of change amongst the alliance and the campus they serve.

SGA met in the Memorial Student Center Shawkey room for its opening Senate meeting. President Pro Tempore Alex O’Donnell led the meeting in place of Vice President Isabelle Rogner. Rogner will be unable to lead meetings this semester due to a conflict with her class schedule.

“Honestly, I was quite nervous at first because I was afraid I was going to screw up. But I think I did the job satisfactorily enough,” O’Donnell said. “We didn’t run over. We got everything accomplished and hopefully people liked it.”

A large portion of the meeting was dedicated to the reformation of the Campus Life and Service Committee.

Rachel Rohrbach, chairwoman of the committee, invited senators to join her committee, promising the committee would involve enjoyable event planning and time efficient meetings.

The senate offered resolutions that the body can address during the semester. Popular topics of concern were library hours, the lack of benches in Smith Hall and inspiring pride amongst the student body.

Afterwards, executives addressed the senate. Student Body President Duncan Waugaman spoke first, discussing new roles of executive members, budgetary changes and upcoming events such as MU Day at the Capitol. Waugaman suggested looking into a different meeting time for SGA so all senators would have an opportunity to attend meetings.

“I’m not asking for change, but I’m asking for us to look at it,” Waugaman said. “I want to see maybe if there’s another time that works best for other people.”

Executive O’Donnell, parliamentarian Gretchen Kalar, treasurer Matt Jarvis and Rohrbach also spoke about their respective roles.

Following the executives, SGA advisors discussed some of the resolutions brought up at the meeting and offered potential paths for successful reformation.

Senate advisor, Michelle Barbour prominently suggested more outreach to the LGBT community.

“We really need to have a presence there. They are in the basement, no full time staff,” Barbour said. “We need to back them and we need to be a part of that community.”

O’Donnell was also dedicated to devoting more resources to minorities.

“I want to see more involvement within minority groups, getting them involved,” O’Donnell said. “Not just Black United Students or the LGBT groups, but also groups like India and Saudi Arabia.”

According to O’Donnell, having an interest in such issues and working with the administration at Old Maine will allow SGA to adapt to the changes the university is currently going through.

Jared Casto can be contacted at [email protected]