Following former President Olivia Gallegos’ resignation from SGA, former Vice President Mitchell Adamson assumed the role of president on the first day of the fall semester. 

According to SGA’s press release, Gallegos’ resigned for personal reasons. 

“One of our platform points was mental health, and for her, focusing on herself right now is what she needed and filling this role can be difficult,” Adamson said.

Gallegos was a senator for two years. She faced controversy in 2021 when she chose to highlight Turning Point USA contributor Morgan Zegers in an international women’s day post. Student senators called for her to resign, but she ultimately remained in office.

Gallegos was inaugurated on April 21, meaning she was president for 122 days before she resigned. Over the summer, one of her largest acts as president was reestablishing the Freshman Leadership Council in hopes of increasing student engagement with SGA.

“It was in response to the sheer number of first-year students who were applying for Senate seats, and we typically only have three freshmen seats open on the Senate,” Gabriel Fonseca, SGA Advisor, said.

Gallegos and Adamson originally ran on a four-point system: transparency, financial literacy, mental health and safety, Following Gallegos’ resignation, Adamson changed the mental health point to “student services” to encompass more physical needs for students on campus. In addition, Adamson added a fifth point: authority.

“Authority was more directed internally at my team,” Adamson said. “I kind of feel like they don’t feel like they have enough authority vested in them to make decisions by themselves, so that’s what I really wanted to give them . . . Authority – maybe more empowerment.”

Adamson said that he wants to be more in touch with the student body at Wichita State.

“Here at student government . . . We all want to better the student body. I want to get to meet the students. I want them to come here and feel like this is their home too.”

Adamson will be responsible for choosing a new vice president. The VP can be a member of the student body or someone already in SGA. Adamson’s vice president-elect will have to be approved by 2/3s of the senate before being able to serve. 

“Right now, I’m really searching in the Senate for a member, mostly because I’m coming into this brand new. I don’t know a lot about student government, and all of that I’ve learned has been over the summer, reading through the bylaws,” Adamson said. “I’m open if there’s people in the student body that want to do it also.”

If any student body member is interested in the vice president’s role, contact (316) 978-3480 or [email protected].

Adamson said he expects to nominate a vice president by next week. 

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Gallegos resigned for mental health reasons, this story has been corrected