ETSU SGA President Trent White will speak for the last time as SGA president at commencement this upcoming weekend. He will then begin preparing for law school this fall.

White has served as SGA president for the past academic year supporting legislation to finalize the opening of Dunkin’ Donuts in the library, adding four seats to the SGA Senate and policies to ensure students do not have assignments during fall and spring breaks.

“Senator Noah Cole took leadership on making this [adding four seats to the senate] happen,” said White. “What we realized is that the population of our college has grown, but that means they’ve not been representative of the Senate for very long.”

White explained that they added one seat to the College of Business and Technology, another to the College of Arts and Sciences and added two to the Clemmer College. Additionally, bill SSA 24-004 was passed in the recent SGA election to add a new seat under “Undergraduate Special” for students part of ACCESS ETSU or audit students.

With construction to the Campus Center Building removing the Pride Walk, SGA has introduced legislation to create a new place for students to express ETSU pride.

Photo of Trent White and Bucky. (Contributed/Trent White)

“The conversation about the Pride Walk started out with us learning that the [Campus Center] Building was going to cause the removal of the sidewalk in its current location,” said White. “There are several locations that we are looking at and the next administration, the Turgeon administration, will be able to make the final decision on that.”

White explained that the locations the SGA is considering are the roundabout at the intersection of Jack Vest Drive and S. Dossett Drive as well as along S. Dossett Drive, in front of Ross Hall. These changes will not be officially made until the SGA has received approval from ETSU administration.

In addition to the legislation formed under the White administration, White has led several initiatives to get students involved in and around campus this academic year. Over the summer, White and Michelle Byrd, associate vice president and dean of students, in collaboration with Student Life and Enrollment, worked to provide students with nearly half-priced tickets to Dollywood.

“What spurred this was the fact that we learned that other universities near us had some of the same opportunities like the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and Tennessee Technological University,” said White.

White said that his main accomplishment was supporting the reinstatement of Dula Day of Service, a community day of service in memory of Chris Dula, a faculty member who passed away in 2019.

“Under our administration, we’ve seen a lot of new programming take place on campus, the main one being the reestablishment of Dula Day,” said White. “Dr. Dula was a very fierce advocate of community service and that’s something that one of our own senators, Rebekah Moody, took full advantage of and worked on.”

Additionally, the administration brought campus’ first Living Room Conversation, a roundtable discussion in which student leaders across campus spoke on media polarization, and the introduction of Young Professionals at ETSU through the first Internship Summit this spring.

Hunter Turgeon, a Johnson City native, is already jumping into action in preparation of next year.

Photo of Hunter Turgeon. (Contributed/Hunter Turgeon)

“We’re looking at a lot of tradition stuff,” said Turgeon. “Senator Cole and I talked with athletics today about some possible traditions as far as football and basketball season go. We’re looking further into internships, looking to replace Mein Bowl, even further along with that, especially in traditions, there’s just so much with the Pride Walk, and I really think that those are some of the first things we’re going to kick off with.”

Additionally, the Turgeon administration will be supporting the implementation of providing students with a syllabus bank. The syllabus bank would be provided to students a week in advance of their classes to allow students the time and preparation for coursework and textbooks. Turgeon said that legislation regarding the CSCI 1100 requirement would also be discussed during the first weeks of classes.

“I know the struggles students have faced with CSCI and the SIMnet technology and its been a big issue,” said Turgeon. “I think Katricia [Robinson] said that fail rates have increased by 4.7% and you want students to be enjoying that class and to learn from it. I think right now it’s a barrier and that’s something I think we can see very early on.

We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback, one from the students, which I think is the most important, but then from administration that seems to be on board with it as well,” said Turgeon. “I’m excited about what we can get done in the regard and I think it’ll be a good year, a really good year.”

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