By Mona Lisa Tucker/south news editor
Jerod Bohon was named president of South Campus following the Student Government Association elections Nov. 28-30 in which 219 people voted.
The new president said he plans to make more of students’ presence on the campus.
“This has been a huge turning point in my life, and this South Campus is going to get me to where I am going,” he said. “I want other students to see that this is not just community college, that this is a tool that they’re using to get where they are going.”
Although this is new to him, Bohon plans to pave the way for the next student administration, he said.
“When they come into the office, they don’t have to worry about the formality of getting a budget, figuring out what they’re supposed to do,” he said.
Student Zinna Butcher won the vice president position, which was the only contested race. She defeated student Tully Lilite.
“I want to unite the student body,” she said. “Nobody really knows about the student government. Most of the people that came up, we kind of had to explain to them. They didn’t know. I even had people who said, ‘Well, that doesn’t really matter. We don’t really have a voice.”’
Butcher said during the upcoming year the SGA will focus on letting students know they have a say.
“If we can get people to vote here, then maybe it would help when they vote for a national election or when they vote for the president,” she said.
Another project she wants to undertake is promoting the campus so students can possibly do more in the community, Butcher said.
“Right now, students are kind of seen as we don’t really do anything,” she said. “We don’t really have anything that we are passionate about, and everybody’s always trying to push us to do stuff.”
Butcher hopes this will show that students do care about their school and community.
“It’s just to bring awareness here,” she said. “Where it’s not just, ‘I’m coming because this is really cheap, and I’m trying to get all my credits and stuff and then I’m going to transfer.”’
Butcher said she wants students to be proud of attending South and be a part of the positive changes taking place.
Student development associate Eddie Brassart and associate professor of government Martha Musgrove put the elections together.
“With the elections, it was a little rough,” Brassart said. “A lot of the positions weren’t contested, so we kind of took the view of promoting SGA.”
SGA is designed to function as a liaison between the student body and administration, Brassart said.
“When a student wants their voice heard, they can bring that issue to SGA,” he said.
