Last Thursday, the executive cabinet members of the SGA’s 114th administration were sworn in for their one-year term during the SGA Senate session, joining the Executive Council members.
The Senate approved the nominations of the following executive cabinet members:
Charlie Beth Pruett — Chief of staff
Noah Ohsiek — Director of engagement
Rylen Dempsey — Chief administrative officer
Hailey Adams — Director of strategic initiatives
Bobby Laury — Deputy chief of staff
Lily Leitner — Deputy chief of staff
Hudson Campbell — Deputy chief of staff
Megan Bonhaus — Director of communications
Chloe Pickle — Attorney general
Counts Shanks — Press secretary
Camden Preskitt — Chief advisor
Parker Tingle — Director of IT and webmaster
Jenni Page — Director of programming and advancement
Riley Pyron — Director of environmental affairs
Karthik Gaur — Treasurer
The Senate, temporarily led by Executive Vice President Aubrei Grisaffe, quickly set to voting on a new speaker of the Senate. Hannon Bulger, a senator for the College of Human and Environmental Sciences, ran unopposed for the position and was elected, replacing Grisaffe at the front of the forum.
Bulger led the election of the secretary of the Senate, which was held between candidates Sens. Theo Villanueva from the Culverhouse College of Business and Scott Radford from the graduate school. Radford, however, announced during his speech that he was graduating that spring and therefore ineligible for candidacy, only running to spread awareness of a loophole in the SGA’s Constitution that allowed for this to occur. Villanueva was elected to the secretary position almost unanimously. Next, the Senate approved the appointments of the executive cabinet, introduced by Bulger.
“After a thorough and highly competitive selection process, these individuals rose to the top of an outstanding applicant pool,” Bulger said. “Each nominee has demonstrated a deep passion for leadership and unwavering commitment to advancing the SGA’s mission of ‘students serving students.’”
After approving the appointments of the cabinet, the Senate voted on some budget resolutions aimed at providing funding for student organizations and quickly adjourned.
The SGA senate meeting was one of the first of the cycle. “The first one is always a little rocky,” Charlie Beth Pruett, chief of staff for the 114th administration said, adding that the presence of former senators in the SGA executive cabinet would strengthen Senate relations going forward.
With two semesters ahead and plenty of goals in mind, the freshly inaugurated members of the 114th administration are set on distinguishing themselves from their predecessors and getting more students involved in student government. Pruett said that her goal for the upcoming year was to advance “accessible transparency” by making information about the SGA’s activity more available to the average student. She said her goals followed the platform of Lucy Bonhaus, SGA president, who campaigned on the idea of creating “lasting, positive change at the University of Alabama,” particularly by promoting “internal transparency.”
Pruett said she wants to sum up the accomplishments of the 113th administration in one document. She said she was inspired by SGA documents unearthed from the early 2000s that were uncovered in their archive. One document dates back to former SGA President Mary Margaret Carrol’s administration from 2005-06 and records all of the administration’s activities, from individual fundraising to successful events and more.
“We’re doing a lot of the same things,” Pruett said, pointing out programs like Beat Auburn, Beat Hunger and SGA-funded hurricane relief.
She said that she wanted her 113th administration recap to be available to all students to encourage more people to be involved in student government and to be more aware of the programs that are available to them.
Counts Shanks, the new press secretary, said she agreed with Pruett and emphasized her position’s role in linking the SGA to its constituents through outlets like The Crimson White. Rylen Dempsey, the new chief administrative officer, said that many of SGA’s programs are underutilized because people don’t know enough about them. “Parking with a Purpose has 500 potential tickets available,” Dempsey said, referencing a program that allows students to pay off their parking tickets with volunteer work. “Only a fraction of those were given out, but I know more than 500 parking tickets are issued every year.” Dempsey said that increasing awareness of SGA programs will lead to the entire University being uplifted, with better outcomes for everyone. He said that applications for funding for student organizations, in particular, needed to be more widely publicized.
Bulger said she was excited about the possibilities for the upcoming year but that, this early into the process, it was hard to tell what the future will hold.
”It takes time for us to build chemistry,” she said, adding that the summits and retreats that the SGA participates in helps to foster that connection.
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