Student senators from left to right junior Grace Harriman, sophomore Will Flanders, sophomore Daren Abramaitys and junior Lucas Gordon.
Emilie Dajc|Marlin Chronicle
The Council would aim to open new lines of communication and collaboration between student organizations, according to SGA president.
Joy Bowden, a junior student senator in the Student Government Association (SGA) and sophomore Miles Pifer, the SGA president, have proposed a new student leadership council (SLC), also referred to as the Council of Club Presidents. This new initiative is an attempt at increasing student engagement and collaboration, according to Pifer. The planned SLC will consist of the leaders within groups and organizations on campus and will be open for the rest of campus also who may want to share their ideas or insights, according to Pifer.
Pifer said that they are hoping to introduce the new initiative in fall of 2025, but this is optimal thinking and it may come later. Pifer serves as the foremost liaison between the student population and university faculty. He said that his goal with this new initiative is to ensure that the communication on campus between various organisations and clubs is more prominent and more official. Pifer said that with this initiative he wants to create a “campus experience that feels very much like a family.”
Bowden helped foster the initiative also. She said that she wanted to contribute more to the school. She wanted to offer her skills and knowledge but struggled to find opportunities in which to do so, therefore she adopted the idea of the Student Leadership Council as a way of formally bringing together clubs on campus to offer more opportunities for collaboration and involvement in the campus community.
She said that there’s currently a disconnect within clubs, with some clubs needing resources or simply support which they aren’t getting. “If we set up a line of communication between the various presidents, they’d be able to help each other,” Bowden said.
Both Pifer and Bowden said that a lot of people on campus aren’t informed about some clubs. They both used the example of the SGA, saying that not many students are familiar with the organizations, and therefore by creating a Council of Clubs they are hoping to increase awareness within the community of various organizations which can become hidden.
Specifically, Pifer said that his reasons for wanting to organise a Student Leadership Council, are primarily to increase student engagement and communication on campus. He described it as a conference rather than an organization, in a town hall setting which he hopes would create a space for staff and students to bring to light issues they are concerned about. He said in an ideal world “it would look seamless.”
Bowden said that sees the initiative as a way of enhancing the social side of college. She also sees it as a springboard for collaboration and communication on campus, however she highlights that for some students social activities need to be formalized in order for them to be widely accessible. She said she struggled with her schedule as a commuter, travelling 52 miles to school. She said that it could be hard to find opportunities to contribute to the campus community, but this was extremely important for her.
Bowden said she would swing by different events when she was free, and the overriding theme she would hear was that they needed support, supplies, funding or new ideas. She then was inspired by this to want to create a collaboration between clubs to help each other and work together. She said it is clear that if clubs worked together, it would benefit everyone.
“Collaboration creates opportunities to be better. Bettering the community or bettering yourself, collaborating furthers those opportunities,” Bowden said.
“Communication is never going to be perfect, but it can always be improved,” Pifer said. This idea that communication can be improved has been the stepping stone to the creation of the SLC, Pifer said, elaborating that increased communication is one of the goals of the SLC’s formation.
“I am so excited for that, there’s huge potential to create much more energy on campus,” Jessica Wilson, senior and president of Marlins Go Green, said.
Wilson noted her anticipation and increasing optimism about the initiative, saying how communication on campus is low and a lot of the time she feels ill informed of events on campus. Similarly to this, Bowden said, “I never know something is happening until it’s basically happening.”
Wilson said that this new collaboration could therefore help create more awareness of other clubs events which will in turn increase participation rates. Wilson also talked about an idea of collaborating with Marlins Go Green with the Athletics Department. She said she wanted to create signs and posters for sports games made out of cardboard, showing already that there is an interest within club presidents for collaboration.
Wilson said that one of the biggest challenges for most clubs is student engagement, and if clubs could help each other by spreading the word more it will benefit us and connect people who are interested in various things to each other.
“If it doesnt turn out perfectly, or if it doesnt turn out the way we intended, it’s perfectly okay. We just want to further the communication, that is the beginning and the end,” Pifer said. The initiative, headed by Bowden and Pifer, could be used to better allocate club resources between organizations, and increase involvement between clubs.
By Meena Lennon
mjlennon@vwu.edu
