Mogley, Kennedy win top student government positions

Every spring Southeast Missouri State University is taken over by flyers, pamphlets and announcements of students running for Student Government Association and Student Activities Council positions. The results of this year's elections were announced last week.

Cassandra Mick won an uncontested race for SAC president.

Peyton Mogley and Dylan Kennedy, who ran on a ticket together, won SGA president and vice president. Brooke Reeves, who ran on a ticket with Doug Halim and Sierra Heil, won SGA treasurer. The full list of winning senators from each college can be found at semo.edu/studentgov/.

"It's kind of unusual to see a two-person ticket, we didn't have a treasurer," Kennedy said. "We asked around and there were great candidates and still are great candidates, but we just finally felt like 'We've known each other since freshman year, you know we have this connection, lets just do it ourselves.' So we knew going into it that we were underdogs. That's why we hit the campaign so hard, we were always on Facebook, we were out and about."

While candidates do typically run together for the positions, the student body votes for each position individually. Mogley and Kennedy, both sophomores, did not have as much SGA experience as their competition, and said they did not expect to win the election.

"What's great about this school is you're provided with several opportunities, you don't necessarily have to have a title to make a change," Mogley said. "You can literally go about doing that so many different ways with different avenues to take."

Before running for vice president, Kennedy served as a senator for the College of University Studies.

"I know there's going to be a lot more to handle, [transitioning from senator to vice president] but as far as running the senate, I feel comfortable doing that and I'm ready for it," said Kennedy.

Mogley has no prior SGA experience, but she does have leadership experience in other areas and believes in her ability to do a good job.

"I think we're taking a real humanitarian approach to this, our whole campaign we've been talking about -- regardless of your affinity group -- if you're a Redhawk, we care about you," Mogley said. "And that's been the main drive, the main focus of our campaign -- is just care and compassion and wanting to show everyone that same love and respect and admiration and appreciation that I personally got when I came to Southeast. ... I guess a lot of what we were talking about in our campaign was not what we were involved in or what we've done, because it's not about what we've done, it's about what we're going to do with how much we care."

A few of the projects they have already talked about and are excited to get started are creating a retreat for senators to go on to help them get to know each other better and start something they call "Southeast Speaks," which will be a program to increase visibility of the senators to the student body on campus.

"We want to be more than a logo at the bottom on your poster sponsoring your event," Mogley said. "We're not here to say, 'Hey, here's your money, good luck.' I was telling someone earlier there's a difference between a supporting ally and supportive ally. Supportive is more passive. We're trying to incorporate more of a supporting role. Adding that 'ing' makes it an action verb, which means 'I'm not just going to sponsor your event, I'm going to go to your event, and I'm going to ask you how it's going, how can we help you."

SGA has meetings every Monday night that any student is welcome and encouraged to attend to learn more about what the organization does.

"This isn't about what [SGA] can do, it's about what we, Southeast, can do together," Kennedy said. "We're including everyone in that, because you have a voice, you go here, it needs to be heard. We're not here to dictate, you know, this is what Peyton and Dylan want to do, because it's not our show. We're just here to facilitate the discussion, get the ball rolling and mediate things."