Contributed/ETSU
ETSU SGA President Shelby Koerten

SGA’s executive branch has hit the ground running with the initiatives and goals it is seeking to accomplish during its term. Shelby Koerten, president of SGA, and Macy Miller, executive vice president, both served as executive members last year as well and have brought their experience and understanding of student needs and desires into the work they’ve already begun. Audie Brown serves as vice president for finance and administration.

“The Student Government Association exists as a bridge between students and the university admin. It really functions as a two-way street going both ways,” Koerten said. “There’s very precise functions that the student government goes through, like the legislative process and direct advocacy, but also in a lot of ways we’re there to make students feel seen and to make them feel like they have people to come to.”

During the executive branch members’ election campaign last spring, they ran on the platform of bringing SGA back to the basics, an acronym representing their core values for the administration: Buccaneer Pride, Access, Support, Investment, Commitment and Standard.

“Two things that guided our administration last year and have continued with us into this term have been ideas of connection and community,” Koerten said. “With every decision that we make, every conversation that we have, we reflect back to those two core guiding values. It’s connection between people, it’s connection between students and resources, it’s connection between decisions and awareness of them, connection in all forms.”

Buccaneer Pride is about focusing on initiatives to bring students together and to help them thrive within the campus community.

“We want students to genuinely enjoy and thrive at the university that they’re at. And a big part of that is actually enjoying their student experience and taking pride in the university that they go to,” Koerten said.

Last year, SGA hosted ETSU’s first Mountain Made Appalachian Folk Festival, a celebration of the region and its culture. It featured storytelling, square dancing, artisans and a concert. Amythyst Kiah, an alumna from ETSU’s Bluegrass, Old-Time and Roots Music Program and a Grammy nominee, was invited back to campus to perform at the festival.

“Everybody is looking forward to expanding Mountain Made and making it bigger because it was such a success this past year. We’re excited to see what that looks like,” Miller said.

Another key focus for the team is Access.

“A lot of times as SGA navigates student concerns and student ideas, what we realize is it’s not that there’s a lack of certain resources on campus, it’s rather a barrier to getting students connected to them,” Koerten said.

One way the team is working on improving students’ accessibility to campus resources is by putting together a unified resource guide that will make it easier for students to find the resources and support on campus for their needs.

The team also is working to improve Support for students. Koerten will hold presidential mobile office hours by the D.P. Culp Student Center Starbucks every Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m., as well as SGA mobile office hours on Culp Main Street at varying times. The SGA office on the second floor of the Culp Center is also always open for students to come by and talk to an officer or just to hang out.

“A huge part of SGA’s role on campus is to have that relational component and to be alongside students through every step of their journey. And what that has looked like for us has been reinstating mobile office hours,” Koerten said. “We don’t want students to feel intimidated to come to us. We want to take that step and go out to them.”

During the summer, the team was already able to complete another support initiative to increase student choices with meal swipes. Students can now use three meal swipes per week at various campus dining locations in addition to the dining hall and Pepper’s unlimited weekly meal swipes.

With the improvements and changes taking place on campus, the team also has a focus on Investment.

“This is just a remarkable time of development at ETSU. I mean, you see it in the new dining locations. You see it in our stunning new academic building. There is so much going on,” Koerten said. “But beneath that, it’s also a critical time of decision-making and a lot of planning is happening about upcoming developments on campus, about the direction that the university wants to go. We want to make sure that we are bringing students’ voices to the table in a way that guides university decision-makers towards what students actually need and want.”

Commitment encompasses the team’s goals of remaining transparent with the student body, giving back to ETSU’s community through their positions and uplifting and empowering students.

One initiative the team is exploring is hosting town halls for students to attend meetings with university administrators alongside SGA when big changes are occurring on campus.

Their final focus is on Standard. Their main goals within this area are to sustain SGA’s current progress and momentum and to better connect senators with the academic colleges they’re representing.

“We want to be taking every opportunity that we can to be serving students and we don’t want to get comfortable with past success. We want to keep pushing forward,” Koerten said.

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