The University of Indianapolis Student Government Association had a complete overhaul before the beginning of this academic year. SGA now has a new president and an expansion to its, currently empty, cabinet.
SGA President Mallory Thompson said she has stepped into a leadership role after running as previous SGA President Stephano Ibarra Shishido’s vice president in the election for this year. Thompson said Ibarra Shishido had to step down from the role due to personal reasons.
Thompson is not new to SGA — after serving as communication chair during the 2023-24 year, she said the transition from vice president to president has been interesting. SGA Advisor and Associate Dean of Judicial Affairs & Residence Life Rob Williford said Thompson has a full-steam-ahead approach, and Thompson said she plans to hit the ground running.
“Serving as communication chair, I was very oriented in outreach and the setting stones for how that position should work,” Thompson said. “Within SGA, even though we are focused on different things, we all interact very closely together … We are just a bunch of moving parts that are all really working together.”
Thompson said the decision for her to become president for the current school year was mostly made over the summer while she was studying abroad in Spain, so she was not able to be in all of those discussions. As she has stepped into the role, she said the collaboration of the SGA team is what helped her decide what she wanted to do as president.
“Moving from vice president to president, I was a little bit like ‘Can I do this? I have to run the show now,’ but I think talking to students has made me feel so much better because I know that there are people interested in doing it with me,” Thompson said. “We all really need each other as support, and so, moving into the president role, I definitely have to connect with [student government] presidents serving on other college campuses surrounding us. I also have to do a lot more work and research to prepare to see how I can best lead a group and make people truly want to be a part of it.”
Williford said his goals as SGA advisor align with Thompson’s goals. He said he wants to start by getting organized and filling the board with people that are interested and invested in student leadership. He said he also wants to focus on establishing the level of student advocacy SGA can do.
“My hope is that I can give the board members an opportunity to be exposed to campus conversations, to be in the decision-making rooms and be able to advocate,” Williford said.
Despite the sudden change from preparing to be vice president to president, Thompson said she is grateful to be part of SGA and that she wants to leave a legacy. She said a lot of this year’s tasks will be setting the groundwork for future SGA administrations, and that Williford, as the SGA advisor, has been very helpful throughout the process.
Thompson said there has not been a big announcement regarding the change because there is not a complete SGA cabinet established yet. As soon as there is, she said she plans get them together in order to establish a plan of action.
“We are pretty close to getting an SGA board set-in-stone and once we do that, we will be able to announce all of it at once,” Thompson said. “Then students will know if they see these people around campus, this is what we do, this is our goal, and we want you to talk to us, to help us support you the best that we can.”
Thompson said the board is expanding this year because she did not feel it was big enough to effectively do its job last year. The expansion was implemented with the goal to increase outreach and diversity within SGA as well as try to increase the amount of student voices that are heard.
Thompson said one initiative she is working on is to get student voices in every conversation. She said there are many faculty and administrative meetings that happen without any true student voice, and she wants to change that.
“Our main goal is really to advocate for students and we want students to be truly engaged with SGA,” Thompson said. “We want as much detailed information and feedback as possible, good and bad. We want to know what could help make your UIndy experience better.”
