The Student Government Association spoke at their weekly meeting on Tuesday with Ethan Logan, vice president of enrollment, about growing enrollment numbers and how SGA can engage with students.

“If you think about why people leave college, I think of retention as a three pronged triangle. It’s academic performance, it’s fiscal outlook, and your personal experience,” Logan on student retention said. “We have a very good and maturing retention rate with the institution. We are at 76.66% (retention rate).”

He also discussed the possibilities on how to better connect with students who don’t speak English as their first language. 

“You mentioned that you were looking for bilingual counselors, so I was just wondering if that was something a student might be able to do,” Senator Salvador León asked. 

“I would not take people on the road with great frequency because you need to stay here and be in class, but with TOP Guides and Tour Guides, these are opportunities for bilingual students to be a voice,” Logan replied.

When the meeting was called to order, most senators and chair members had nothing to report. President Cole Bornefeld briefly mentioned the listening tour he, Vice President Garrison Reed, and Administrative Vice President Sam Kurtz have been attending. The listening tour is an opportunity for SGA to increase their accessibility to students and make sure their voices are being heard. 

In SGA’s press release on the listening tour, Vice President Reed said “The listening tour is a great opportunity to allow our students from all walks of life to share their experiences here at the hill. We are able to then implement that experience into something that is positive for everyone.”

“We have had a successful couple of stops on our listening tour, and got really great feedback from the Panhellenic Council,” Bornefeld said.

Additionally, SGA is working on renovating its office located on the second floor of Downing Student Union, which now has a ping pong table inside it. 

SGA reporter Bailey Reed can be reached at [email protected].