Jordan Whitledge doesn’t sleep. The newly elected Student Government Association president lives by a quote he heard, “Dream big, work hard and don’t stop.”
Beginning his days on campus at 6:00 a.m. and leaving some nights as late as 11:00 p.m., Whitledge works as hard as he can to perform his best for SGA.
Friday evening Chief Justice James Fidler posted the results of the SGA election in the SGA office. It was that night, while Whitledge was out at a philanthropy gathering with his fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha, he received a phone call from his opponent Mandy Plassmeyer congratulating him for being elected SGA president.
Whitledge will take office for the 2011-2012 school year. Of the 896 total votes Whitledge, who originally wanted to run for Vice President, came out winning with a strong 58% of the votes.
While Witledge was out gathering signatures for vice president, friends, acquaintances, faculty and staff were telling him they thought he would do a great job as president. The support gave him the encouragement and confidence to run for president.
Whitledge says his goal as SGA president is to “create more communication among organizations, collaborate more, cosponsor more events and be on a first name basis with everyone involved in student organizations.”
He wants to reach students like Serena Jones, sophomore social work major, who did not vote.
“Since I’ve been here I’ve heard nothing about SGA. I don’t even know what they do,” Jones said. “I’d like them to explain what their jobs are.”
Whitledge says the goal of SGA is to “represent the best interest of the students concerning topics such as advising issues, core curriculum and parking issues.”
Whitledge also hopes to “restore confidence and trust in SGA.”
Elections took place last week, emails were sent to student accounts with a link and password for each student to log on and cast their votes. Elections ended at 4:00 p.m. Friday evening.
Amy Neuner, senior social work major, is pleased with the results and hopes to see change in the future in SGA.
“He’s done so much with the campaign support and for/with Greek life,” Neuner said. “I don’t think anyone in the past has really had the chance to make some change. I would like to see it.”
