The members of the Student Government Association have united this semester with the common goal of improving the lives of Texas Wesleyan students.

Last year’s SGA elections were controversial due to divided voters, organization President Zahraa Saheb said. But Saheb, a junior political science and English major, stresses that there is more unity in SGA than before.

“If we are divided we are not going to achieve are main goals and we are not going to have good results,” Saheb said. “I am very proud of this group of leaders. The main reason we are here is to serve the student body.”

Saheb, who came to America seven years ago as a political refugee from Iraq, has been involved with SGA since she was a freshman and served as vice president last semester.  

“One of my main goals for this year is to promote SGA,” Saheb said. “I would like more students to know we are there.”

Saheb believes leading SGA provides her with the opportunity to make a difference in the experiences of students on campus.

“SGA is a chance to mold how they want their college experience to be like,”  Saheb said. “If they knew about SGA, the kind of events they want to see, or things they don’t like, this is the place to change those, this is the place to make things happen.”

SGA Vice President Kelsea Coker, a junior sociology major and Fort Worth native, shares Saheb’s love for the campus. Coker came to Wesleyan for cheerleading, then joined SGA in the fall of 2015 as the School of Business Representative and served as Representative at Large in the spring. She continues to take on many roles within the organization this semester.

“I am the head of the building and grounds committees, so we have weekly meetings, weekly executive meetings and general business meetings,” Coker said. “I am the head of the travel abroad scholarship, and I am in charge of the participation program.”

The participation program  encourages students to attend SGA meetings in exchange for monetary rewards for their organizations, Coker said.

“I think it’s a really good way for students to reach out to us,” Coker said. “It is a way for us to give back to the students.”

Many new faces can also be seen sitting around the table of the Student Government Chamber, such as  Treasurer William Wick. The senior criminal justice and psychology major admits that this is his first time doing anything like this, but that doesn’t stop him from having some big goals for the future of the organization.

“We are literally employees of the student body,” Wick said. “We got $54,000 from this semester just from the incoming students, that’s like $22 per person, and for us to take that money and throw it away would be wildly inappropriate.”

Wick says Wesleyan is the fifth university he has attended.

“My background is in the military,” Wick said, “I did some stuff with intelligence, and I like everyone to have the whole picture.”

Wick has been working on making SGA more transparent to the student body by allowing students to view the organization’s budget online. This is the first semester that this information has been available in this way.

Wick describes student government as controlled chaos, but says he loves doing it.

“I would do this professionally if I could,” Wick said. “It’s a chance to serve the student body.”