By Lily Barnette & Ülvi Gitaliyev

Lily Barnette is a Sociology and Peace & Social Justice double major from Bloomfield, Kentucky and Ülvi Gitaliyev is a History and Political Science double major from Baku, Azerbaijan. They were both elected as SGA Senators-at-Large in September 2022. The article below was written by Lily Barnette & Ülvi Gitaliyev.

In 2022, we were elected to the SGA as Senator-at-Large positions, where we worked closely with President Connor and helped pass through important projects, such as President Roelof’s condemnation of the anti-gay and anti-trans bills in the Kentucky General Assembly and The SGA Student Award for Service, which awards three Berea College students with $300 to help them with pursue social activism on campus and beyond.

Amplifying student voices were one of our main priorities. That is why we helped set up “The SGA Convocation Survey” which received over 500 student responses and was included in the recommendations of the General Education Modification Committee (GEM) and will affect policies related to convocations in the future. We also helped set up a complaint form for the Berea College Labor Program, where students could anonymously report labor issues which we would then report to the Labor Program and other relevant parties.

Now, we want to take our projects into the Executive Office. Our main goals are continuing the policies of Connor Courtney by supporting the construction of a student center, the opening of a cheap and student-friendly thrift shop. We also want to expand on our work with the labor complaint form by creating an official grievance process whereby student workers can report their issues without fear of punishment.

You can vote for your favorite SGA candidates at the following link after the SGA debates at March 14th, 7:00pm conclude.