Washington College welcomes new members to 2023-2024 SGA review board

By Autumn Scully

Elm Staff Writer

Following the announcement of the 2023-2024 Student Government Association President and Vice President, the SGA recently made their decisions for the remaining review board members for the upcoming term.

These new members include sophomore Emma Parker-Watt as Speaker of the Senate, Elm Student Life Editor sophomore Heather Fabritze as Honor Board Chair, Elm Sports Editor sophomore Jack Poleto as the returning Financial Controller, and freshman Kya Balin-Brooks as Parliamentarian.

Unlike the President and Vice President positions, which are determined through student body popular vote, the remaining review board positions are determined through the SGA via an interviewing process, with the exception of the Speaker, who is nominated and then voted in by other senators.

The interviews were conducted by the review board from the 2022-2023 term in addition to the new President, Vice President, and Speaker. 

The new review board members, who will be officially sworn in on April 4, have many personal and collaborative goals for their upcoming terms.

Parker-Watt’s duties as Speaker will include facilitating conversations between the senators, student body, and faculty. The Speaker sits in on the review and executive boards and stands up at the front of Senate, making sure it runs smoothly.

However, the aspect of being Speaker that Parker-Watt plans to focus most heavily on is improving senator retention and getting more people into Senate.

“I want to really focus on collaborating with the vice president to get the clubs into Senate. We have over 70 clubs on campus and a lot of the members of those clubs aren’t in SGA. So [I will be] trying to reach that broader campus community,” Parker-Watt said.

Fabritze’s duties as the Honor Board Chair will include organizing all aspects of Honor Board hearings. She will also meet with faculty vice chairs for the Honor Board and the Dean of Students regarding academic and social student violations.

Communication is Fabritze’s main priority for her approaching term. This includes communication between the Honor Board Chair, the faculty panelists, the student panelists, and the dean of students. 

“I want to work on…making that entire communication flow a lot clearer because currently a lot of honor board stuff is online and virtual, so I think making those conversations happen a little more would benefit the body as a whole,” Fabritze said.

Fabritze also would like to work on getting rid of the discrepancies between how the honor board is now and how it is shown on the website and in the student handbook so that respondents and witnesses involved in hearings know what they’ll be doing.

Fabritze, an honor board panelist since October 2021, is confident in her abilities to carry out this vision, and excited to do so.

Meanwhile, Poleto’s duties as Financial Controller include running the semesterly budget cycle, making purchases, and approving budgets and discretionary requests for clubs with the budget committee, which he heads.

The financial controller acts as a liaison between the business office and the student body, which is why Poleto aims to strengthen the student body’s connection with the business office over this next term.

“A big problem is that people just don’t know a lot of what they do… they don’t know the whole process and inner workings of the finances for clubs,” Poleto said. “I think that if you are a club treasurer, I should be able to provide that [connection] as a resource because it makes their jobs easier.”

Poleto hopes to bring stability to the financial controller position in being selected for a second term, something he thinks that it needs.

Balin-Brooks’ duties as Parliamentarian will include overseeing class officers and cabinets, legislative review and amendments, and conducting all elections. The Parliamentarian is also involved in student employment matters.

Balin-Brooks’ priority for her term will be to continue work with the cabinet to ensure efficient operation.

“Cabinet members, especially the liaison positions, are a major asset to the school because they regularly address student concerns and work hard to make our campus a better place in conjunction with the rest of the SGA, so I definitely want to make sure we can keep making improvements on how it operates,” Balin-Brooks said.

Overall, according to the new review board members, they have a lot of innovative ideas for their upcoming terms and are excited to work together for the next year.

“I would really encourage all students to utilize this energy that the new board is bringing in and get in contact with them, present ideas to them, and work with them to make sure that we are able to make the student experience the best we can,” outgoing Parliamentarian senior Maegan White said.

Elm Archive Photo

Photo Caption: The SGA office hosts the review and executive boards, providing a resource to students.

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