BY KAYLA DRAKE | A&E Editor
Previously known as LSGA, Lindenwood Student Government has undergone a series of changes in an effort to gain recognition and more clearly define its purpose, officials said. Changes include the organization dropping “Association” from its name and creating a new logo.
In addition, representatives no longer are paid through the student worker program. Instead, student government representatives get a small grant toward tuition. Senators and other positions receive $250 per semester, and the president earns $500 per semester. Four senator positions are currently open.
Since representatives are no longer in the student worker program and all of the people are new to their positions this year, Lindenwood Student Government President Nick Stone said it was time for a facelift.
“With all the changes in student government going on these past few years, we also just wanted to simply reinvent ourselves and come off as a new, fresh organization to help students,” he said.
Student Government adviser Rachel Tolliver said that the decision to cut hourly paid jobs had to do with overall budget cuts and the restructuring of the student worker program this year.
Posy Durr, who is vice president of the student group, said this year representatives are very dedicated and want to gain a bigger presence on campus through hosting events and writing bills.
“This is us volunteering our time because we want to be a part of student government,” she said.
Tolliver said the organization was looking to define itself more distinctly to gain a larger reputation, and representatives looked at a lot of other colleges to gather ideas.
“If people hear LSGA, and they aren’t familiar with student government at all, they wouldn’t associate that with student government,” she said.
Stone said that the organization will no longer have an acronym, but their emails will contain the acronym “LSG.”
“A lot of student organizations just simply go by acronyms, and believe it or not, we actually get confused with GSA (Gay/Straight Alliance) occasionally because our acronyms are so similar,” he said.
Tolliver said she did not have a big role in the rebranding, except to act as a soundboard to make sure the rebranding complied with Lindenwood’s public relations standards.
“It was very much student-driven and student-led,” she said. “They’re the ones who contacted the designers, who approached [them] and said, ‘Hey this is what we’re interested in doing.’”
The new logo is now the Lindenwood lion instead of a gavel. Stone said part of the reason for the change is because the group is not policy-based.
“We try to make change on campus, but we can’t force the change,” he said “We are not the final solution; we are not ‘this is the law of the land,’ so having a gavel can come off that way to people.”
