Like many other schools around the country, Ball State has a Student Government Association.
“Student government is essentially your voice to the administration,” SGA President James Wells said.
SGA is a student governing organization on campus made up of student senators who write and vote on legislation. The legislation generally addresses issues that affect Ball State students.
The SGA also serves to appoint students to various University Senate committees dealing with aspects of decision-making including public safety, event programming and scheduling, student rights, ethics, standards and teaching evaluations, according to bsu.edu.
At the top of the SGA hierarchy is the executive branch. The current executive branch is made up of Wells, Vice President Ana Batres, Secretary Brock Frazier and Treasurer Emily Halley.
Wells, Batres, Frazier and Halley are part of the current governing slate. Each year a new slate is elected by the student body to fill the executive branch. The recently-voted slate is OPTiC, headed by President-elect Greg Carbó, Vice President-elect Katy Volikas, Secretary-elect Lizzie Ford and Treasurer-elect Kaia Thompson.
RELATED: OPTiC wins close SGA election
The executive branch is also comprised of an executive cabinet. The cabinet consists of advisory positions to the president such as chief of staff and press secretary.
“There are going to be times in your collegiate career where you’re going to be frustrated with something, have a concern about an issue on campus,” Wells said. “Student government is a way to make sure that you get heard and something is done about it.”
Recent SGA initiatives have included gender-neutral housing and pushing for open dialogue about hate crimes in Indiana.
The organization has also provided funding for sexual assault prevention and put charging stations in various buildings around campus.
“Those are just some of the things that SGA, you can see physically that we do,” Wells said.