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Printer-Friendly ModeNew SA President elected
Hammerbacher plans to improve SA accessibility, campus image
April 25, 2005 —
Senior Emily Hammerbacher will become the next president of the Student Association. Running unopposed, the 22-year-old History major from Saginaw received 482 votes and will take over for graduating, current President Armen Hratchian on Sunday, May 1.
Hammerbacher brings two years of previous SA experience to office with her, where she has been involved in numerous committees and projects. Along with sitting on the Student Concerns and Library committees, Hammerbacher has also served as the chair of Student Affairs and as the Student Ombudsman. She has been active in the university's diversity events, playing a role in the effort that brought world-renowned poet and author Maya Angelou to campus last November. Along with her SA counterparts, she has played important parts in Battle of the Valleys and Relay For Life.
Hammerbacher has also been involved in many organizations outside of SA. This past year, she was a member of Program Board and has also served as a resident academic assistant. She was selected for the 2004-2005 class of Roberts Fellows, which will soon make a month long trip to Asia.
Though Hammerbacher doesn't officially take office for another week, she did recently meet with the newly elected SA representatives to outline their goals and objectives for the upcoming year. Hammerbacher said she was encouraged by the meeting and would actually have to narrow down the dozens of items discussed.
One such item was to work to improve SA's image.
"The last couple of years, we've been successful in programming and that sort of thing," Hammerbacher said. "But the biggest problem was getting the message out of who we are and how we can act as a resource for students."
Making the organization more accessible and visible to students on campus is just one of the ways Hammerbacher hopes to accomplish this.
"We've always had the concept where organizations will come to us for a resource," she said. "We're going to try and establish a more 'us to you' instead of 'you to us' type of attitude."
By following this approach, SA will try to become more user-friendly.
"A couple of the new (representatives) mentioned that they thought SA's image was becoming too much of an elite group and that it was hard to access it," Hammerbacher said. "We'll try to make SA a little bit more of a University-wide concept where people know who we are and what we can do for you."
Along with improving on its image, SA also plans on passing resolutions with academic policy.
"I think it's something we want to try and extend and reach out to a little more this year," she said. "Academics are something everyone has in common. It's the one thing that binds us all together as SVSU students."
While her next year in SA is structured, what happens once Hammerbacher graduates is far from determined. After she leaves SVSU, Hammerbacher hopes to attend law school, though she has yet to make up her mind for sure.
Hammerbacher said she has a number of mentors and individuals who have helped inspire her to get to where she is today.
She lists current President Hratchian and Ombudsman Dick Thompson as those who have helped inspire her within the organization and her parents as those who have acted as constant inspiration.
In the end, Hammerbacher has both her own and SA's long-term goals in mind.
"When you spend time in an organization and you put your work and your time and your heart into something, you want to see it succeed in the years to come," she said. "This past year, I thought this was something I could do. This is something I can do to give back. I can benefit the students and I can benefit myself in the long run."