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Student Government Association, 2017-2018 school year. Courtesy of SGA

The newly rebranded SGA hosted a three-day party to promote its organization and talk to students about campus life

The Student Government Association (SGA) hosted a three-day event called the “SGA Pop Up Party” on the OAT Lawn on East Campus. The party started on Oct. 31 and went through Nov. 2 from 12-4 p.m. for all respective days.

The SGA Pop Up Party provided a chance for the new leaders, senators and representatives to talk with students about upcoming events and any ideas they had regarding student life.

“The SGA Pop Up Party has been incredibly effective,” said senior physics major and SGA president James Whitfield. “We’ve had an opportunity to connect with students that don’t generally involve themselves with us because we are in a different location and we are making that well known. We have had opportunities for different students to come through and for them to get registered for The Table and…for other things.”

Along with student media, SGA had a rebrand over the summer, which included a new logo.

“It is a different location, but really we are just trying to market our ability for students to come in and feel welcome; for students to come in and feel that they have a voice and they understand where we are and that they are allowed to come in and enter our space,” Whitfield said.

Many senators and representatives of SGA were on-hand during the three-day event to talk about ideas and events being worked on in the office. One of the main contributors to the rebrand was junior public relations major Morgan Lawrence, who is the Director of Communications for SGA.

“With our new space, we want an opportunity to rebrand the whole SGA,” Lawrence said. “It used to be things like ‘We bridge the gap between students and faculties,’ but now it’s ‘We’re a light for campus, we’re a resource for students, and just advocating that with the rebrand and our new icon.’”

Lawrence said the temporary office space was in Wilden, but they wanted to be a more physical presence on the OAT Lawn for people to come in. Lawrence said this space is just temporary until SGA moves into its new office, which will be where the Cornerstone Coffee shop currently is.

The rebrand is a big topic amongst members of SGA. Senior communication studies major and SGA Speaker of the House, Faith Pavlisin, shared a few thoughts about the transition.

“Our communication team worked day and night for two weeks to rebrand SGA and that includes a new image and a whole new concept behind who we are,” Pavlisin said. “Our mission statement this year is ‘We are an organization that exists to create change and advocate on behalf of the student body.’”

The next upcoming event is “The Table.” It is the fourth year that this event is taking place, and it was created by one of the former presidents of SGA. Pavlisin is in charge of coordinating The Table for this year.

“Basically, our hope is that this would be a community exhale and this would be an opportunity for us to engage with one another,” Pavlisin said. “It would provide an opportunity for us to go deeper but also get to know people that you wouldn’t normally get to know, [because] you get to sit next to someone who is administration or faculty, an international student or someone you wouldn’t normally talk to, and [you] get to engage with one another as a community.”

The Table will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 5 p.m on Cougar Walk. If you are interested in attending, RSVP by Nov. 10 via email to sga@apu.edu.