Elon University junior Morgan Bodenarain, SGA president-elect, had the task of appointing three executive positions amid an unprecedented lack of election participation.
This SGA election no one ran for the executive positions of vice president, treasurer or secretary.
Now, Spencer Wagner, current SGA senator for the junior class, has been chosen as the new student body vice president. Joseph Arthur, current junior class treasurer, will take on the executive treasurer position and Rachel Hobbs, current junior class president, was appointed to executive secretary.
Bodenarain, with the help of outgoing president Kyle Porro and outgoing vice president Mark McGann, finally decided who would be helping her this upcoming year in serving Elon and its students.
Bodenarain was initially worried that no one would apply for the positions, but she soon saw applications rolling in.
“Following the applications, we did an interview with me, Kyle Porro and Mark McGann,” Bodenarain said. “All of the applicants were very well qualified. We stayed in the office discussing and debating for at least a couple of hours, and then we came to our decision.”
Wagner initially ran for a senator position and won. Other people then encouraged him to apply for the vice president position.
“I’d hope to accomplish several of the goals that Morgan has laid out,” Wagner said. “I’m looking to help her a lot and essentially be her right-hand man. “One of the responsibilities for the vice president is to plan the retreat that SGA has at the beginning of fall semester to increase the bonding of all the senators and to start thinking of what SGA wants to do.”
Wagner and Bodenarain were already close friends, but Bodenarain believes they will be able to work through their friendship to ensure they come to the best decisions for Elon.
“That’s one thing that we spoke to Kyle and Mark about because Kyle and Mark are also best friends,” Bodenarain said. “They said there are positives to it and there are also negatives. I think that our bond will definitely have the positive and negative, but we can work through it. We both are dedicated to SGA and want what is best for it and the campus.”
Arthur applied to the executive treasurer position and was quickly appointed through a less extensive process because SGA needed to begin budget hearings with organizations as soon as possible.
“We were unable to do interviews because we had budget hearings coming up and treasurer is one of the most imperative positions on SGA.” Bodenarain said. “It is by far one of the most important, so we needed to do it very quickly. Kyle and I sat down and looked through every single application and we narrowed it down to a couple. We reached out to Eason, who is the current executive treasurer, for his opinion and took that all into account, and we chose Joe.”
As treasurer, Arthur hopes to be able to save money where possible and maintain the budget.
“I want to make improvements to save money where I can.” Arthur said. “I want to give students the opportunity to do great things at Elon with all the great organizations that we have.”
Hobbs was the first person that Bodenarain reached out to via email about the application process. Hobbs and
Bodenarain both ran for the executive presidency and had come to the decision that no matter who won, they would have a position on each other’s executive board.
Bodenarain kept her promise and gave Hobbs the option of picking the position she wanted. Hobbs underwent the application process for the position of executive secretary.
“They were all prominent, important and crucial roles,” Hobbs said. “I would have been honored to serve in any capacity. Specifically, I chose secretary because I wanted to bring the student body together in terms of more school spirit. I will be working directly with homecoming and continuing the Elon Ball.”
Bodenarain and the other three executive members of SGA are set to be sworn in April 6. The executive board are looking forward to serving the school to increase school spirit, inclusivity and civic engagement and will be holding their first meeting on the same day.
“When students look to us, they see this is a bond and common friend, and they really are dedicated to this school and SGA,” Bodenarain said. “I’m really excited for this year. We have an amazing, very well-qualified executive board that is going to do incredible things.”