SGA Ends Pandemic Year With No Election, No New Officers

The Penn State Greater Allegheny (PSUGA) Student Government Association (SGA) held its last meeting of the academic year on Apr. 23, through ZOOM, during Common Hour, where Interim President, Sidney Przybylski, was expecting to announce the results of the election of new officers. With few attendees, except for current officers, the meeting was brief and just enough time for Przybylski to announce that no one from campus ran for elected office nor did any current officers seek re-election.

The lack of an election and interested officers capped a year of governance challenges, changes in officers, and minimal overall campus participation.

“No one reapplied and everyone else is transferring so there aren’t any officers currently,” she told The GA-Zette immediately after the meeting.

“I’m still talking with who wants to be vice president with me as president, so the only solid officer position is me…also [we are] in the midst of restructuring so everything’s kind of up in the air,” Przybylski added, also thanking the executive board “for participating” in SGA this year.

Przybylski announced the success of the SGA Ice Cream social, which was held the previous week. The event was to encourage students to apply to and get involved in SGA.

“That went pretty good. We gave out 25 coupons for free ice cream, so that was fun,” Przybylski said, although she did acknowledge that the goal of the event was not accomplished.

Przybylski later thanked all who attended and participated in SGA throughout the year and she wished them success in the future. “Thanks for coming to the meetings…I appreciate that. It was wonderful to get to know you guys. Happy end of the semester!” Przybylski said.

Within the week following that last meeting, Residence Life and Co-curricular Engagement Coordinator, Louise Aravich, told The GA-Zette that there has now been some resolution to the SGA leadership for next year, but that there is still work to be done.

Aravich went on to say that SGA has moved forward on electing Przybylski, an energy engineering major, and Elijah Akinade, biobehavioral health (pre-med track) major and current SGA chief-of-staff, to SGA president and vice-president, respectively. Both students will be juniors come fall.

“Every campus should have an SGA, but as it’s a student-run organization, if there is no interest, we cannot run it without students,” Aravich said.

“Sidney and Elijah are very dedicated to SGA and growing the organization in the upcoming year.”

Aravich also said that Przybylski and Akinade will be recruiting hard during NSO (New Student Orientation) days, as they both are also NSO leaders, and they will be hosting an SGA booth at the club recruitment fair in the fall on Aug 25.

In spite of the situation, Przybylski is still asking and encouraging returning students to PSUGA to apply to participate in SGA in the fall. Aravich says that she and Associate Director of Student Affairs, Justin Dandoy, have plans to dedicate more time as co-advisors to SGA.

Story by: Cheyenne Hennen (csh5384@psu.edu)