SGA Launches New Podcast for Student Outreach
For senior Lanah Riley, serving as president of the Student Government Association at Salisbury University is about more than holding a leadership position. While being involved with SGA since her freshman year, Riley said she began to see opportunities for the organization to become a more useful resource for students.
“I've been in SGA since my freshman year, and so I've kind of just grown up with it through these past four years,” Riley said. “This past year, I didn't even decide that I was running for president until I kind of looked around, and I realized that I had so many ideas for how SGA could be useful.”
Riley’s vision for SGA centers around three ideas she emphasized during her campaign which are advocacy, accessibility and transparency. She said those priorities came from considering what students needed most from their student government. One of the first areas Riley wanted to address was how students understood SGA and its role on campus.
“What are the information that students think that they're not getting the most? Okay. They don't know what SGA does. Got it,” Riley said.
That question helped lead to the creation of "SGA on the Fly", a podcast designed to give students another way to learn about what is happening within SGA and across campus. Riley said the goal is not simply to promote SGA, but to make information more accessible to the student body.
“What SGA on the Fly in totality is trying to accomplish is that transparency aspect,” Riley said.
Claire Knauss, SGA’s director of marketing and communications, has helped manage the organization’s public presence and said the administration has focused on making SGA more visible to students.
“With this administration in particular, Lanah really wanted to transform SGA into ensuring that we no longer have an identity crisis,” Knauss said. “Doing that is ensuring that our SGA is in people's faces, so that everybody knows that we're there, and that way people will be more inclined to share any concerns or grievances they might have.”
The podcast also features RSO Spotlights, giving registered student organizations an opportunity to introduce themselves and their work to the campus community. Organizations can submit a form to be considered for a segment, with questions about the organization and what topics they would like to discuss.
For Knauss, the podcast is intended to accompany, rather than replace, other ways students communicate and find information.
“In my mind, the podcast isn't to make people stop talking. It's just there to be another resource,” Knauss said.
Riley said that same philosophy extends to SGA as a whole. Rather than expecting every student to become involved directly with student government, she wants students to know that SGA is available when they need it.
“We are here to help. We are not here to make your lives harder. We are not here to add more to students' plates. We should be the resource for all campus complaints,” Riley said.
Riley also hopes that the initiatives being introduced during her administration will continue beyond her time in office. In particular, she wants future SGA administrations to continue adapting their communication strategies to the ways students consume information.
“I hope that the next president and the president after that invest in this as well,” Riley said. “I hope that SGA on the Fly continues to evolve to match whatever cultural phenomenon is connecting with the students at that time.”
What matters to her is that students know where to find information and where to turn when they need assistance.
“As long as you're getting the information about this campus around you, the community around you and getting to know where to show up. That's all that matters to me,” Riley said.
For Riley and Knauss, the goal is ultimately to make SGA a more recognizable and accessible part of campus life. One that students know exists, understand how to reach out and can use as a resource when they need it.
The first two epsiodes are now streaming on Spotify, Youtube, TikTok and Instagram.
By SOFIA ARNAIZ
Editor-in-Chief
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