DeKALB — NIU’s Student Government Association (SGA) held its State of the SGA event in the Capital Room of the Student Holmes Center on Monday. They reflected on their accomplishments for the 2024-2025 academic year.
President Ja’Kobe Jones reflected on the 56th session’s success in participating and holding events that create a stronger community between all students and staff at NIU.
Jones mentioned events such as Coffee with NIU PD, the Unity Dinner and the SGA’s presence at NIU’s Advocacy Day.
“Together, we united not just to advocate for our own experiences but for the future of NIU as a whole,” Jones said.
The event continued with Vice President James Innis, Treasurer Ethan Pesavento, Student Trustee Aidan O’Brien and Senate Speaker Manny Corpuz reflecting on their accomplishments and thanking those who have helped along the way.
Innis reflected on the SGA’s 2024-2025 academic year goal to create 50 new student organizations. Innis highlighted that they were able to create 25 new organizations for the fall semester and 23 for the spring semester, making their total just two shy of their goal of 50.
“I had time to look back and reflect on all the organizations SGA has had the honor of serving during my time here. Having had a grand total of 91 student organizations becoming SGA recognized in the 55th and 56th sessions is an amazing accomplishment,” Innis said.
Pesavento went on to explain the accomplishments he had as treasurer during the 56th session. He explained how they were able to create a new supplemental funding application for student organizations, build a Finance Committee and redefine financial policies within the SGA.
“When I began this journey, I set out with a clear goal to make SGA financial processes more transparent, effective and accessible for every student organization on campus. I am proud to say that together, we have achieved this goal and much more,” Pesavento said.
Pesavento and O’Brien will both graduate this semester.
“It’s been a great year, last senior year, a great way to kind of wrap up my student leadership journey at NIU,” O’Brien said.
Corpuz was the last to give remarks. Corpuz explained that he was able to accomplish his goal of stabilizing the senate. He went over all the legislative accomplishments the SGA senate has had, thanking them all for their hard work.
“This year, the SGA senate has approved over 77 pieces of legislation, with over 30 pieces of legislation being changes to our internal systems and documents that will help SGA run more efficiently in the next session,” Corpuz said.
After the speeches and addresses were given, Corpuz inaugurated Jones as the 57th session SGA president.
Jones then inaugurated the 57th session’s new treasurer, Nicholas Lazaric, and student trustee, Innis. Corpuz then inaugurated the new senate speaker, Nathan Gonzalez. Gonzalez, now as the new senate speaker, inaugurated the new senate members for the 57th session.
