Butler’s SGA keeps students updated on events and initiatives using social media platforms. Photo courtesy of Butler SGA’s Website.
OLLIE FITZGERALD | STAFF REPORTER | ofitzgerald@butler.edu
Butler’s Student Government Association (SGA) faces many changes throughout the 2024-25 school year, especially this spring semester. The Haworth-Walls administration has been working to implement new initiatives and projects to benefit students. At the same time, major staffing changes have occurred across all three branches. These changes occurred due to graduations and study abroad, though the positions will change again at the end of the school year.
Initiatives and projects
As incumbent SGA president and vice president –– Sydney Haworth, a junior speech language and hearing sciences major and Gracie Walls, a junior biology major — had a number of priorities and ideas they wanted to bring into their term. These projects included increasing transparency about SGA bylaws and funding, as well as creating more on-campus resources and spaces for students.
Haworth and Walls created an SGA guide at the end of the Spring 2024 semester that they distributed to different offices across campus and during Block Party at the start of the 2024-2025 year. They hope to distribute another round of the booklets and potentially put the guide online so students can access it from anywhere. The guide explains every SGA staff position, addresses FAQs and details the budget for the year.
Additionally, Haworth and Walls have been working on several projects to improve student life. The pair originally mentioned adding hammock cities to campus but later pivoted to a plan to build a beach volleyball court near Fairview House this summer. Haworth and Wall also have made an initiative to partner with more local restaurants where students can use Out On Town Dollars.
“We have three vendors that are very adamant that they want to be part of this program, and they’ve gone through all the approval processes,” Haworth said. “Nutrition Hub, Java House and Cholita are the three that we’re starting with, within the [near future].”
Part of SGA’s mission this year has been focusing on advocacy for students. Butler’s SGA joined an Indiana SGA coalition with other schools such as Indiana University, Purdue University and Valparaiso University. The coalition has had meetings where they gather to share ideas. A large initiative headed by the Purdue SGA has been to change the Indiana Lifeline Law to protect both the caller and the person the phone call is made for.
“Our representatives have been going to meetings about the changes in [both] the Senate and House,” Haworth said. “We’ve been trying to shift more to an advocacy role on a larger scale, but also we’ve been focusing on what we can do for students here.”
There have additionally been changes and new initiatives within other parts of the SGA executive board.
Eloise Ayotte, a sophomore environmental studies major and director of sustainability for SGA, created a sustainability board to help with initiatives on campus.
Olivia Coy, a senior strategic communication major, SGA chief of staff and strategy and communications fellow in President Danko’s offices, has been working on a SGA social media series called “Discussions with Danko.” Her goal with the series is to increase administrative communication with the students by letting them submit questions for President Danko to answer via Instagram Stories.
Nathaniel Bruno, a senior biology and mechanical engineering double major and SGA director of diversity, equity and student belonging, has been trying to establish partnerships between SGA and the Efroymson Diversity Center. Using data about the student body, he has been trying to work on helping to provide resources to benefit underrepresented students.
Andrew Byrd, a senior finance major, is the director of finance and facilities. He has worked on several initiatives like hosting a personal finance event where students could learn about life skills like paying off student loans. Byrd created a way for different SGA boards to give grants to RBE groups if they implemented key priorities of SGA board members, like sustainability or diversity and inclusion. He is also trying to build a partnership with Bird Scooters to help reduce the prices for students.
Staffing changes
At the start of the year, several new first-year and sophomore students were elected to the Senate, giving the SGA the voices of new students. At the start of the second semester, the mental health and wellbeing chair position on the executive board changed leadership.
In December, two justices graduated and another three went abroad for the second semester. This left one of the original justices remaining, meaning that four new justices had to be appointed. Riley Bradshaw, Olivia Pruitt and Noelle Davis have taken the position and another is in the process of being hired currently.
Kate Rashevich, a senior political science major and the Chief Justice of the SGA judicial branch, joined SGA as a justice in her freshman year and ran for chief justice her junior and senior years.
“At least two of the [new justices], if not three of them are freshmen, so they’re young,” Rashevich said. “Finally getting to hand down the judicial branch, which has [traditionally] been comprised of [upperclassmen], is good to get new blood in SGA.”
The executive branch of SGA also has faced staffing changes, specifically with the replacement of the mental health and wellbeing chair.
Clayton Reames, a junior biology major, took over the position after the previous chair started studying abroad.
Reames originally got involved with SGA during his freshman year as a diversity, equity and student-belonging board member and became the accessibility chair his sophomore year.
At the end of that school year, Reames took a step back from SGA to focus on his mental health until he heard there was an opening for the mental health and wellbeing chair.
“My goal is to promote mental health on campus [and to] break that stigma for people to take a step towards getting the help they need,” Reames said. “[I want to] show [students] resources they have, but also make sure they’re getting that help [without making it stigmatized].”
As mental health and wellbeing chair, Reames wants to help update the already available resources and make them more accessible for students. He also hopes to work with bigger corporations and local businesses to get students access to resources such as more streaming services for entertainment purposes as well as mental well-being.
“I’m really trying to break that stigma and trying to help somebody make that first step [of reaching out for help],” Reames said. “For me, that was the hardest part. If I had actually taken that step I feel like I still would be [doing] as good as I am now, but I wouldn’t have had to deal with [losing friendships and isolating myself].”
Butler’s SGA has been working to implement new initiatives and strategies to overall improve student life on Butler’s campus. They encourage students to ask questions, submit feedback and stay involved with SGA through attending senate meetings and events.
