By Wendy-Akua Adjei; The Whetstone

 Last semester, some student leaders said the Student Government Association was not performing at a level they were happy with.

“I think SGA should have more events for students,” said Kierra Whitaker, president of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. “This will help students know who they are and maybe encourage people to get involved on campus.”

Brooke Retkowski, secretary of SGA, said SGA is still deciding on having events for students.

“We have thought about this because we do have a lot of money that was rolled over from last semester.” she said. “We want to, of course, give this out to orgs to give them more money for their events, but we also want to help sponsor some events this semester with that extra money as well.”

SGA listed in the Parker Pulse, the library’s newsletter, the organizations on campus with which students may become involved.

Retkowski said there hasn’t been much of a response.

“There hasn’t been an increase in effort (to join organizations) shown by the more recent classes,” said Rex Chege, president of the black student union. “To step up and pick up where those before them left off.”

Last semester, student leaders complained about the SGA’s inability to communicate with each other and students.

“We have started to work on having better communication between the board, our adviser, and the faculty members, so we are able to get things done quicker than we were last semester,” Retkowski said. “We recently got a new adviser, Dr. K. Bunyaratavej, and she is huge on getting things done and helps to structure us on a schedule.”

Dr. Kraiwinee Bunyaratavej, also known around campus as Dr. Nok, replaced Dr. Jack Barnhardt. She refused to make a comment for this story.

“We have been getting back to people through emails faster, reaching out to one another whenever someone picks up forms that need to be signed and doing it to be returned to Naomi within 1-2 days,” Retkowski said.

Alexis Bynum, president of the fairy god sisters of Delaware, said she noticed an improvement in communication.

“So far SGA is doing better with communicating with students so far when it comes to meetings,” she said.

Da’Quan Martin, president of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, said he wants to see SGA board members become more interactive with students.

“I would like to see SGA be more involved as a board themselves because they are supposed to be the voice for the students,” he said. “A lot of students feel as though SGA doesn’t represent the students enough.”