The Student Government Association (SGA) inaugurated the Freshman Class Council and discussed changes to its caucuses at its weekly meeting on Sept. 29.
During the meeting, SGA officially recognized Kobi Khong as the freshman class president and Raj Bhatt, Jenny Chen, Harvey McGuinness, Ireland Parrish, Elaina Regier and Benjamin Scherzer as freshman class senators.
In an interview with The News-Letter, Bhatt emphasized that it did not matter to him whether he was sworn in online or in-person.
“It’s not really the ceremony that matters, it’s being on the council and being able to have the power to change what’s around you,” he said.
However, Bhatt expressed that he was disappointed to not be able to meet his fellow class council members in-person.
“Getting to actually work in-person with the people on your council is one of the best parts of working on a team,“ he said. “It’s not going to be the same if you can’t actually meet each other and plan things in-person... but I think we’ll find ways to work around it.”
Bhatt explained that he was eager to assist with online events. Although he admitted that in-person events were preferable, he argued that online events are cheaper and easier to organize.
“Even if each event’s not as big, you can have more of them which kind of compensates for that,” he said.
Members of the Freshman Class Council were also confirmed to various committees.
Additionally, SGA discussed the Caucus Bylaws Amendment, which will require all SGA caucuses to be headed by a member of the SGA Senate or Executive Board. Caucus vice presidents are still allowed to be non-SGA members.
Senior Class President William Cho, who introduced the amendment, explained that requiring the heads of caucuses to be SGA members would help the organization better control the caucuses’ actions.
“If these caucuses are commissioned by us, then it should be run by us at the top position,” he said. “We should have final say, so it doesn’t really make sense for a chair to be a non-SGA member because that would pose some risks.”
The amendment passed unanimously.
