Student Body President Joseph Shepard said many people will look upon the 58th session of Student Government Association as a controversial group.

“But they’ll think of it as a year that opened up so many doors for so many people that put a face to who Student Government Association is and what they do on this campus,” he said.

In addition, Shepard said the 58th session showed students how much power they have.

“A lot of students don’t realize how much power they have, but they realize now that when we come together and we unite and we stand together, regardless of our differences, we can make an impact and we can make a change on this campus,” he said. 

Shepard said he is proud of the work the 58th session did. He said he looks forward to a strong year with the 59th session.

“We see already that we have strong, powerful senators who are not yes-men,” Shepard said. “They are going to make sure that in the midst of much controversy, they’re going to stand up for what they believe in and what their constituents believe in.”

SGA Chief of Staff Kiah Duggins echoed Shepard’s thoughts and added the 59th session plans to be as data driven and oriented as possible to make sure decisions made by SGA are based, statistically, on what constituents want. 

“I’m very excited to do that,” Duggins said. “I’m very excited for us to implement all the projects we have going. I think this is going to be a very productive year.”

Shepard said the 59th session is not going to look at what divides its senators, but rather unites them. 

“We look forward to working with our student body senators and our cabinet to make sure we’re propelling our university in a positive direction,” he said.

Shepard, Vice President Taben Azad and other SGA members will work during the summer in preparations for next school year. SGA can be reached at 978-3840 at the SGA office on the second floor of the Rhatigan Student Center and online at wichita.edu/sga.