SGA elections close with a historic new term

Over the past weeks, the Student Government Association at Missouri Western has undergone its yearly election process for different positions including president, vice president and senators. Nathan Scott was elected to continue his Presidency, being the first to ever serve three terms straight, and Lauren Bloodgood was elected as vice president.

To run, Scott and Bloodgood had to collect 100 signatures from students showing support for their campaign. After collecting signatures the official online voting opened on April 6. Scott and Bloodgood ran uncontested for their positions.

Previously Director of Student Involvement and now serving as Vice President, Lauren Bloodgood is making the shift from helping the registered student organization connect to resources to focusing on running the senate.

“I hope to make the senate a useful experience for the senators and make the experience beneficial for the general student population,” Bloodgood said. “I am excited for this next year and I hope to do this job well.”

The SGA has been working to try and make improvements to its infrastructure over the past semesters. One area of improvement they noted is the increased amount of student senates that has reached the maximum twenty-student limit, which hasn’t happened for several semesters.

President Scott is looking forward to continuing to advocate for the students of Missouri Western over the next year as we exit the university’s financial emergency and continue the downward trends of COVID-19.

“We still have a ton of work to do in regards to making SGA better serve our students, making processes more efficient and user friendly. We need to enable our student leaders to succeed and help build a community that we can all enjoy belonging to,” Scott said. “ We need to show our students, our peer institutions, and even prospective students that MWSU is back and better than ever. Before we can show it we must bring it back and make it better than ever, and that starts with all of us as student leaders.”

Connor Peter’s term as SGA Vice President is coming to an end, but he is looking forward to onboarding the next administration and providing support.

“I think there has been more interest in SGA this year than in previous years. This is evident in our historic Senate participation, and I have even heard many students express interest in joining the SGA Executive Board,” Peters said. “My guess is that last school year, which was dominated by COVID-19, reminded everyone of how important campus engagement is. I have been thrilled to see the uptick in SGA participation, and presiding over a full Senate has been amazing.”

Peters will remain a member of the SGA into the next semester as a newly elected senator. Other than Peters, nine other students were elected into office as senators, some students returning to fill their previous positions as well as a few newcomers to SGA.

President Scott concluded with the message that by working together Missouri Western and its students can do anything it puts its mind to.

“Together we can achieve anything. Go Griff’s!”