With the spring semester in full swing, the Student Government Association, otherwise known as SGA, has created the $1,000 Student Challenge. Although this concept has internally been ongoing throughout SGA, this year the entire student body has the opportunity to be involved.

Senior Haley Mueller and a team of senators are running this campus-wide contest. In an interview, Mueller explained how originally SGA would bring suggestions to meetings to present the project, however, this year the students have the opportunity to propose and potentially present their ideas themselves.

Timeline of $1,000 Challenge, Photo via SGA

Mueller is Vice President of Student Life while majoring in political science and strategic communications. She also has a strong connection to this project, for she has had a similar journey while as a past SGA senator.

She states, “The first year it was introduced, I submitted a project, which was to replace the computer chairs in the FSC down under. I was spending a lot of time down there and realized all of the chairs were pretty dated and mismatched. So, I brought it to the attention of SGA, and we were able to replace them. I still love going down there still and seeing my project completed! I know that the other senators who have also completed $1,000 projects have enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment after seeing their hard work pay off.”

Another representative working with Mueller is sophomore senator and political science, english and writing major Emilee Harless. When asked to describe the $1,000 challenge and the motivation behind it, Harless says, “The $1,000 challenge by SGA is a cool project the student life committee put together, and it is basically a way to get direct feedback and ideas from the student body in order to improve the Drury experience. Ideally, all of our ideas proposed by senators are reflections of the desires of the student body, but this project in particular allows for students to get directly involved in the process.”

Rules for $1,000 Challenge, Photo via SGA

The Mirror reached out to Kaylee Ohlson, another member assisting Mueller, but she has not yet responded with her feedback on the $1,000 challenge.

Another member on the committee working on this project is senior senator and architecture major, fine arts and design in society minors, Torrey Gabriel. Gabriel hinted that SGA has received multiple fantastic ideas, but would also love to receive more. Gabriel also states, “SGA is an organization that represents Drury University and its students. We want students to know that they do have a voice and we are here to listen.”

The Mirror also wanted to ensure that the student body’s opinions on the $1,000 Challenge were heard. In a poll conducted on a social networking site, 78% of the voters were excited about this challenge and the other 22% were not. Two anonymous students chose to state their thoughts on the challenge.

The student who believes the challenge is a well-thought-out plan says, “I think that is a great idea for improvements to campus. There are so many spaces that have so much potential. Getting options from the students for new projects will allow students to make our campus what we want.”

On the opposing side, another anonymous student states their opinion: “I just feel like there are more important matters to be dealt with. And I get that SGA funds are limited and go to the students’ experience, but I feel like Drury likes to do things that students don’t agree with, then SGA does a giveaway or something and makes it all better. I don’t know… maybe I’m just jealous because I don’t have a genius $1,000 idea.”

After being contacted with the second anonymous quote, SGA has no comment.

Although the study body may have varying opinions on this particular SGA project, in a final comment Mueller states, “Of course, students can always submit their ideas and/or concerns to us at any point in time, but this call-to-action will hopefully encourage students to take notice of things that they think could be better at Drury!

Article by Gabriella Wuller