By Anna Mann
Editor-in-Chief
The Order of the Gown (OG) announced the winners for the 2019-2020 elections on Friday, April 5. Emma Burdett (C’20) will serve as the president of the Student Government Association (SGA), and Nellie Fagan (C’20) was chosen to lead the OG.
In addition to the two prominent positions of OG and SGA presidents, each class elected five SGA senators, rising seniors and juniors elected four Honor Council members, rising sophomores three Honor Council representatives, and all classes voted on a new Student Trustee: Sarah Strand (C’21), who will serve alongside current trustee Malicat Chouyouti (C’20).
Burdett claimed that she felt a profound sense of gratitude and humility upon receiving the election results. She looks forward to fully dedicating her time to serving her peers and working with the other SGA senators she’s come to know in the past three years.
Burdett cited communication as her central focus in the upcoming school year, saying, “I plan to establish a consistent block of time, an office hours of sorts, where students can come and voice their concerns or ideas to me face-to-face, for an hour each week. In addition to prioritizing listening to what my peers have to say, I want to continue establishing partnerships with student organizations to focus on mental health awareness, sexual misconduct awareness, and unifying student groups.”
Similarly, Fagan stated that she ran for OG president in order to engage students and administrators in dialogues to better the Sewanee community. On her Facebook, Fagan stated, “I plan to foster a space for the campus community to participate in meaningful dialogues of how we uphold honor at Sewanee.”
Both Burdett and Fagan hope to increase transparency in both their organization’s workings as well as the administration’s decisions.
“I have seen the student body’s desire and ability to enact change on this campus. As Order of Gown President, I intend to value all student opinions, regardless of gown status,” explained Fagan.