SGA members and attendees reflect on the past year

  SGA members talked about the deep impact of this past year on April 21 in the Pierson Auditorium to support and reflect on the accomplishments of the executive board and the rest of SGA.

  This event was the first annual End of Year Celebration Dinner, a tradition that Yasmen Hassen, the past SGA president and her team hopes will keep going after she steps down and hands the role over to Justice Horn.

  Hassen, a junior studying business administration, focused on making SGA more visible to students during her term. She connected to so many students during her time in office while also creating deep connections with her own board.

“I have had so much love and support around me and I have never felt that way before,” said Hassen. “It’s impactful continuing to build that community and seeing how much love and support came from that.”

  According to Scott Nguyen, a junior studying chemistry, three-year member of SGA and the past vice president, this year was the most stable in all of the time he’s been a part of it.

“We never had any of the internal conflicts that come with students and student governments,” said Nguyen. “It was really nice to be able to have such a peaceful environment where there wasn’t that much hostility towards people.”

  During the celebration, the executive board of this past year acknowledged individuals that shone through in one way or another. They invited all the members who wrote resolutions to come up to the stage to get medals for their achievements.

  They also honored the Dean of Students and primary SGA advisor Todd Wells for his commitment to helping them achieve their goals for the year. 

  Wells described this executive board as “fantastic leaders” and said that they “really put themselves out there, put students first and cared a lot about how we can change the experience here at UMKC.”

  Although this year has run pretty smoothly, Justice Horn and his executive board are going to have many different challenges thrown at them.

“As we transition into this next period, it’s going to be a different climate,” said Horn, who is getting his masters in public administration. “We have to defend diversity, equity and inclusion and human rights and dignities and that’s going to take someone who is going to fight upper administration, the UM System or whoever it may be.”

  Though the next SGA cycle may have some more difficulties, students are encouraged to get involved more to help make the change they want to see happen.

“I encourage all students to get involved and know that SGA is here to advocate for you,” said Wells. “If you don’t participate in the process like voting and coming to SGA meetings, we can’t do anything. So we need more students to care.”

oowzg2@umsystem.edu