Caroline Wilkerson ~ Copy Editor
On April 11, 2019 at 1:48 p.m., an email was sent to the University of Lynchburg student body announcing the SGA elections results for 2019/2020. Davion Washington, formerly director of public relations, was announced as the new SGA president, defeating Nathaniel Pierce, former vice president of External Affairs. It was also announced that Seiya Nomura is the new vice president of Internal Affairs, and Darian Geddis, vice president of External Affairs.
B.J. Keefer said in the email that “we had a 22% voter turnout, which is above the national average, around 18%. Additionally, for the first time in many years, of the three elected positions (President, VP of Internal Affairs, VP of External Affairs), two of those were contested. This shows the work of our current SGA members and the involvement of our student body.”
Washington said, “I originally did not intend on running for the position of President. Quite frankly, I was afraid and backed away from the idea, but so many of my peers urged me to run. I have had a plethora of brilliant ideas for the University and the student body here at the University, and having the encouragement and faith of my peers gave me the push that I needed to represent the student body in the largest leadership position.”
Davion ran on the platform to improve and boost student engagement and to ultimately promote and ensure the highest quality of student life. He said he wishes to make certain that his platform is reached through, “Improving-staff relations, ensuring administration accountability, tackling campus safety issues and policies, and addressing campus diversity and inclusion.”
He continued, “Two major entities that I want to improve are the dining services, and the business office. It is quite clear that dining hall hours are premature and inconvenient at times, and there may be a bit of an explanation as to why, but there [are] also constructive ways to navigate around the business aspects. I would like to work to improve these hours, innovate a strategic carry out system (using examples from Virginia Tech and Longwood University as models), and allow meal exchanges to be utilized on weekends. I am also hoping to foster a relationship with other student governments in the area and to bring the Virginia NASPA conference to the University of Lynchburg.”
Washington concluded, “The campaign process was exhilarating and I tried to hit the ground running and getting my face out to the campus. It even got to the point where I was hearing people say that I was doing too much or going overboard. My opponent [Nathaniel Pierce] and I prided ourselves since our first year that we would boost engagement in the SGA and eventually have contested elections and we did just that. I wanted this election to be far from a popularity contest, and no matter how much I was told how everyone knows who I am or how big of a name I am, I did not let that make me ease up on pushing my platform and what I truly stood for. This campaign was serious because SGA is serious whether or not our student body realizes it. We have the capability to do and change so much on campus for the better.”
