By: Megan Robinson
Co- News Editor
On April 8th at 4:30 in the forum the Student Government Association is holding an inaugural event to induct the new executive board and introduce the cabinet members.
The event is open to the entire student body to attend. Senior Ben Cowman, current SGA president, said that at the event he will be speaking, along with the president-elect, junior Nick Bender, and President Coley.
The event hasn’t been held for many years, despite being a requirement listed in the SGA bylaws. The SGA decided to begin hosting the event again this year in order to open up the induction ceremony to all students on campus, according to Cowman.
The ceremony is bitter-sweet for Cowman, who served on SGA in various positions for four years. Cowman has seen many changes occur within the organization throughout his time on SGA, including the re-organization of SGA and the start of digital signage (the LCD televisions and programming).
However the accomplishment Cowman is most proud of SGA achieving is approval of the activity period earlier this year. Cowman described it as a milestone they weren’t sure they were going to be able to achieve.
The inaugural event also has special significance to the new president-elect, Nick Bender. Bender decided to run for president after some prompting from Dean Gerl and Cowman. Bender had previously served as a senator for SGA, and as president of Phi Delta Theta.
Bender plans to focus on remarketing CAPboard during his term, in order to improve college activities. In addition Bender wants to improve communication between students, staff, and administration. Bender is also planning for future goals as well. “Goals will come as I meet different college services,” said Bender.
The organization Bender is about to run is certainly different than the one Cowman entered four years ago. Cowman said that every year the effectiveness of the SGA is rated on a one to one hundred scale by a national organization called the American Student Government Association. Cowman said last year McDaniel’s SGA was rated as a seventeen. However, this year the rating was a sixty-four, quite a jump in such a short amount of time.
Bender shared that Cowman told him he was jealous of the SGA Bender will take over, as it’s much more improved than it previously was. Cowman also thought the incoming executive board had a lot to build off of.
Bender said he thought Cowman did a fantastic job in his time on SGA and he laid a great foundation for the incoming SGA members to continue building upon. Cowman said he hoped the new executive board continued the momentum of the outgoing group, and said that he thought they had a lot of potential.
In addition to Bender four other students will be inducted into the other executive board positions. Zach Weeden will be vice president, Ha-Young Kim will be treasurer, and Robert Kapp will be secretary.
Bender expressed his excitement to be working with them. He said Weeden brings great experience from his previous SGA positions as vice president of college activities. He described Kim as a particularly smart girl and said Kapp was extremely professional. Cowman also described them as a great group.
