The St. Olaf Student Government Association (SGA) held its fall student senate elections on Sept. 27. Elected students now serve on the Student Senate, the official representative body of SGA. The senate approves the SGA budget and makes major policy decisions for the student government.
The student body elected 11 senators during this election cycle. Three additional senators were appointed by the SGA executive team and confirmed by the Senate at their first meeting on Oct. 4.
The only senators who ran opposed elections were the first-year and sophomore class senators. Every other senator ran unopposed or was appointed after the election ended.
Each class year is represented by at least one class year senator. This year, the class of 2023 reelected Simon Allen ’23 to serve in the role. Allen ran unopposed. The Senate appointed Chau Truong ’24 as class of 2024 representative after no students campaigned for the position during the election.
The class of 2025 reelected Grace Barton ’25 and elected Donovan Roddy ’25 to serve as their senator. Barton and Roddy beat two other candidates in the election. The class of 2026 elected Logan Samuelson ’26, Evgenia Roth ’26, and Kaia Kempf ’26 as their representatives. Samuelson, Roth, and Kempf beat four other candidates in the election.
There are also a number of senators who represent particular constituencies of students on campus. Kate Zhylinskaya ’25 was reelected as the International Student Senator, Sarah Seebacher ’25 was elected Gender and Sexuality Senator, and Samsam Ali ’26 was elected Interfaith Senator.
Two additional senators sit on faculty committees — the curriculum committee and the student life committee — and act as liaisons between the faculty committees and the Student Senate. Salma Elbezawy ’25 was elected Curriculum Senator, and Zari Irving ’25 was elected Student Life Senator.
At their Oct. 4 meeting, the senate also confirmed Gretchen Ellis ’23 as the Disability and Access Senator and Hannah Kietzman ’25 as the Environmental Senator. Ellis will also serve as Senate Parliamentarian.
As of this publication, the positions of Multicultural Senator, one of the class of 2023 representatives, and one of the class of 2024 representatives remain unfilled, according to SGA Vice President Jeremias Thiel ’23.
The senate confirmed several non-voting members as well. Non-voting members are either members of the SGA executive team or liaisons to other student governing bodies on campus. Giang Le ’24 was confirmed as the Marketing Communications Office, Sophia Pletcher ’24 was confirmed as the SGA Executive Assistant, Nathaniel Mersy ’24 was confirmed as the Chief Technology Officer, and Lukas Haugen ’24 was confirmed as the Chief Financial Officer.
The senate has yet to appoint a non-voting Student Athletic Advisory Board Liaison.
In addition to the senators elected and appointed this fall, the president and vice president of SGA, Sebastian Pham ’23 and Thiel, are voting members of the senate. Thiel additionally serves as The Board of Regents Student Committee Observer, Fenton Krupp ’24, is a voting senator as well. All three were elected in the SGA election in April 2022.
Senate meetings during the 2022-2023 academic year will be held on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m.
