Bollinger, Fischbach call for student unity

Editors note: This week’s opinion section asked both SGA presidential candidates to submit a letter to the editor explaining why they are running for SGA and what they plan to do if they are elected SGA president and vice president.

This year, the Student Government Association elections feature two campaigns with a junior presidential candidate and sophomore vice presidential candidate, yet the amount of experience in regards to what the SGA is concerned is significantly different.

Kara Fischbach has served as chair of one of the three main committees within the SGA for the past academic year, and I, Stephen Bollinger, have served as a senator under the past three SGA presidents.

This has given me the chance to learn from each of these presidents during their respective terms.

As chair of the Finance Committee, Kara has become an expert on the budgeting process for student organizations and has been able to advise them in their fiscal endeavors.

Our three main areas we want to focus on are improving the student experience, supporting diversity and facilitating positive community and alumni relations.

We would like to increase the amount of interaction among student organizations across the university to promote a sense of unity for our students. For this reason, we would also like to ensure that assistance is available to our non-traditional students to offer them the best possible experience at the University of South Dakota.

By making the SGA subcommittee on diversity a standing committee, we could increase the focus on the topic of diversity on our campus.

Due to the dependence of students on the community and vice versa, we would like to ensure that community and student leaders meet on a regular basis to promote a good working relationship to improve Vermillion and USD.