Wheaton College’s Student Government Association (SGA) passed a constitution formalizing and finalizing the organization’s long-awaited restructuring on Jan. 29.
This new model expands Student Government to include a 40-member senate of 20 class senators and 20 student leaders. Those running for class senator from the rising sophomore, junior and senior classes will apply through a Google form sent out by SGA.
On Feb. 27, a form will be sent to all Wheaton students, allowing them to vote for their preferred student body president, vice president and class senators. The five senate candidates with the most votes will represent their year beginning August 2025. Next semester’s first-year students will elect senators in the Fall after they arrive, according to Student Body President Marina Ntragatakis and Executive Vice President of Student Life Philip Kendall.
“It’s low stakes, you fill out a form and then your name goes on the ballot,” SGA President Emeritus Jackson Connor said, “that way you don’t have to campaign if you don’t want to.”
Currently, the student leader portion of the SGA Senate is set to begin in August of 2026. The rollout process is in two phases to manage any issues that arise in the first year of implementation and to give the groups represented by student leaders more time to prepare their recruits for the platform.
The goal of this new SGA structure, now three years in the making, is to incorporate “voices of people who are actually hands-on with different groups on campus in a more approachable and doable way,” Ntragatakis said.
Traditionally, SGA only consisted of the executive board pictured above, and secretaries were elected positions referred to as executive vice presidents (EVPs). In the new model, the president and vice president-elect will appoint the secretaries, allowing them to build a more unified, cohesive team and decrease the number of campaign positions. However, before anyone can assume the role, the Senate must approve the choice with a simple majority vote.
The new structure is also an attempt to build team culture within the board and increase its ability to pass projects down from year to year. “We’re hoping to formalize that whole process so that bigger things can get done that have already been worked on,” Connor said.
The restructuring has also changed how a proposal gets to Wheaton’s administrative board. An EVP used to be responsible for writing proposals and the executive board would vote on or amend it. If that proposal passed, it would move onto administration. However, secretaries will only write the proposals next year, and the Senate will be tasked with approving, amending or vetoing the potential legislation. This change maintains the efficiency of a three-step process while representing more of the student body in the decision.
Kendall believes the changes would likely expedite the legislative process. If, as SGA hopes, the board focuses on policy writing and the Senate focuses on voting and representatively amending those proposals, it may allow the organization to actualize policy more quickly.
“I think the legislation process will be faster,” Kendall said.
Even as the current student government celebrates the changes they’ve passed, they are gearing up for this month’s elections. The task of implementing the new SGA rests on whoever is elected on Feb. 27.
