SGA focuses on internal, external approach

My fellow coyotes,

As the spring semester comes to a close, I wanted to provide you all with an update on what your Student Government Association has been up to. We have continued to stay busy all semester long, and have accomplished much already.

Thanks to the smooth transition and hard work by the outgoing administration led by President Muckey, we have been able to change the way SGA conducts business by focusing on becoming more efficient inside and out.

For our external approach, we created the External Communications Manager position. This position is an executive level position on SGA and will focus directly on student outreach and media interaction. We started live-tweeting our meetings, creating monthly newsletters and press releases, and working toward broadening our reach of all students on USD’s campus.

Internally, we restructured our standing committees, making sure that our Senators have a balanced workload, are working on projects for the students and USD and so they may have more free time to reach out even further.

This semester also marked the first all-SGA retreat. As members and advisers to SGA, we spent a Friday evening reflecting on our new five-year strategic plan, outlining our goals for the upcoming year and participating in Inclusive Excellence training. All of this will help us become a more effective organization, and will continue to make sure that SGA is representing all students from here on out. We can already see the benefits of the retreat in our Senate.

Also, we revamped our budget process for student organizations this year by hosting an optional second round of hearings. We were very impressed with all of our student organizations. I am proud to say this year that not only did SGA restore their cut from last year’s GAF allocation, but we were also able to increase funding to nearly all funding eligible student organizations.

Finally, as you are wrapping up those last papers and final exams, make sure to pat yourself on the back for all of your accomplishments this past year too, big or small. Whether you are finishing up your first year at USD, or maybe finishing up your last, know that your presence on campus means something and that we can’t wait to have you back.

Until then, have a great summer and as always, Go ‘Yotes!

Tyler Tordsen

President, Student Government Association