SGA celebrates 100th anniversary with virtual event
CMU President Bob Davies congratulates SGA on their 100th anniversary in his speech that opened the celebratory event on Nov. 11, 2020.
In place of a banquet, Central Michigan University's Student Government Association hosted a Facebook Live event to celebrate its 100th anniversary.
The livestream included a speech from President Bob Davies, previous SGA presidents reminiscing on their time at the organization and perspectives from current and old SGA members.
Davies said 2020 was the "worst year for higher education," and spoke about SGA's role in helping the university prepare for the upcoming semesters.
"All of that work has benefited the university, but you've also benefited students," Davies said. "Students sometimes choose to not get involved with the Student Government Association because they don't want to get on the political side, but... being political is about caring for community and taking action to improve it."
Alumni from 1966, 1997 and 2016 spoke in short videos about their experiences at SGA.
Lisa Diaz from the class of 1997 spoke about how she first joined SGA. She went to the organization's office and was pulled into a protest outside of the then-CMU president's residence, she said.
"I was like, 'Okay, I don't know who this president is or what we're protesting, but sure, sign me up," Diaz said. "I jumped in a car with a bunch of SGA members and went to the president's house."
Protesting was a common theme as former SGA president Gene Ragland from the class of 1966 spoke about his experience organizing a protest at CMU. It was against the 1965 beating of recently deceased civil rights leader and U.S. Representative John Lewis in Selma, Alabama.
He said the protest "barely got any recognition," and the university derided the protest, which was organized by SGA.
"One beautiful spring evening in 1966, we could hear a ruckus coming from campus," Ragland said. "I thought that I would be blamed for any student occurrence. The next day I went to campus and I was relieved to learn that it was just a panty raid... Hanky-panky was okay, but advocating for student rights would have to wait for another day."
SGA President Katie Prebelich talked about the challenges of this year, but how "student leaders show up when they need to."
"The Student Government Association at Central Michigan University is an incredible place with incredible people that do incredible things," Prebelich said.
The full livestream is available to watch from the event's Facebook page.
