SGA Gives a Voice to the Student Body

By Jewell Strock

The Student Government Association at Cedarville University serves to provide a voice for the student body, encourages involvement on campus, develops campus morale and enhances the quality of student life.

Senior Sage Showers (left) and Junior Zach Forehand (right) are the rising SGA president and vice president for the 2022-2023 school year

The head of SGA is the president and vice president. These roles are important because they impact the student body. SGA held a recent election with rising senior Sage Showers and rising junior Zach Forehand elected as the new president and vice president respectively.

The process of elections for SGA president and vice president involves being a three-semester student, which helps freshmen focus more on adjusting to college life. An information meeting that occurs in the fall semester provides insight into the election process and timelines when everything must be verified. In the spring, another meeting is held and shows what campaigning looks like and the rules and voting process.

The candidates then have between 3-4 weeks to plan their campaign, establish their team and take photos to promote their campaign. Before spring break, the first round of elections is held, narrowing it down to two pairs of candidates. After campaigning for a week, Friday morning is when the voting poll opens and then closes early in the evening. Then the winner is announced, and SGA has a new president and vice president.

Current seniors Rufus Mathew and Kasey Pot, the sitting president and vice president, fondly looked back on their time as the head and face of SGA and what SGA meant to them. Pot chose to run for vice president because Mathew asked her to. And she felt that the Lord was opening a door so that she might share gospel-centered love with the entire body of Cedarville.

Being the vice president of SGA involves guiding a team of 10 individuals by making sure they have everything they need to run their operations smoothly, as well as running SGAVille, the social media account.

Serving as vice president of SGA is important because it is crucial that the student body is not overlooked and that their ministry is centered around unity and the love of Jesus. She also maintains the ability to be approachable and personable. Mental health is something that is important to Pot, and she wants her ministry to focus on helping those struggling with mental health problems.

“I personally want anyone who struggles with mental health setbacks not to feel marginalized but set free by the truth of the word of God and the tools he has given us to better ourselves,” she said. “These tools range from counseling to simply making sure you eat your veggies.”

Senior Rufus Mathew and Kasey Pot served as SGA president and vice president for the 2021-2022 school year

“Being President of SGA involves a lot of paperwork, and practically the president is responsible for hiring and casting vision for the executive 11-person board by showing what SGA hopes to achieve that year.” Mathew said. “I also have a weekly meeting with Dr. White to discuss matters about the student body, and on a daily basis, it requires a ton of meetings with students and getting insight into the student life.”

SGA has an important role. “Without SGA, it would be more difficult to bridge the gap between the faculty and the student body,” Pot said. “It is important that those relationships are maintained, and that is a big part of our job.”

“I had worked in many areas on campus before running for president, and I had made many friends, and I was able to learn so much about serving others and as being president of SGA,” Mathew said. That’s what being a leader entails. It’s learning that you are not here for others to serve you, but for you to serve others.”

Looking back at how SGA has impacted the community and herself, Pot said, “I have really enjoyed the relational aspects of SGA. Not only do you make and create a lot of new friendships with people you might’ve never crossed paths with, but you also get the opportunity of having most people in the student body recognize you. This leads to many conversations better blessed me immensely that I would’ve never had unless I had been given this position.”

Sage Showers and Zach Forehand, the newest president and vice president of SGA, plan on helping the student body, first and foremost by putting together executive directors, preparing to come in by working cohesively. They want to work as a team and start off strong through a unified team. 

Showers also plans on starting a mentorship program for students.

“We don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like, connecting students at Cedarville to young leaders and adults in the area, allowing them to talk about the next steps after college and what it looks like to lead and serve as a Christian outside of the Cedarville bubble as well,” she said.  “The more people that we can get plugged into SGA and excited about SGA, as well as the more people in SGA that we can get excited about all of the other things at Cedarville, the better. I think the more integrated we find ways to make the community here, especially as we grow, the better it will be for the student population.”

Forehand said, “We want to have a lot of fun with this and be morale boosters, but at the same point, we want to do our jobs to the degree that if something is important to the students, then that will be important to us. And we’ll make sure that it’s important to us.” 

“We want to do our best, and hopefully when problems arise, people will come to us with feedback,” Forehand added, “people on campus are going through hard and different things, and if we could in any way play a small part in helping one way or another, whatever way that may be. If we just have the chance to do that, and Christ could use us in that way, that would be super cool, because we realize we’re all going through tough things, and at the end of the day, we have an awesome opportunity to be united through Christ while we’re here for three, four, or five years. Let’s just make the most of it and work through things as a student body.”

Jewell Strock is a sophomore International Studies major and a writer for Cedars. She enjoys drinking matcha, rainy weather, and taking occasional walks.