On April 22, Midwestern State announced Vincent Peter as the winner of the Student Government Association presidential race.
Peter currently serves as the Vice President of External Affairs, working on student outreach and participation, something he said he plans to expand during next year’s presidential term.
“I want to get more organizations and more people involved and trying to get people, like, out there, coming to events and so forth,” Peter said, continuing, “I plan to continue a lot of the traditions that have already been started here at SGA, and how we can improve on those traditions and just make it an overall better experience for everybody.”
Peter says he wants to make it clear his priorities are not his own wants and needs, but what the student body wants.
“So a lot of it will be finding out or trying to hear from, from students and one way we plan to do that is try to get more social media interaction, I can probably count on my hands the amount of people, probably, knows where the SGA office is,” Peter said.
Peter plans on collaborating with VPEA Brianna Vidal and Vice President of Internal Affairs Monique Watkins to ensure SGA is accessible by students and student organizations and students needs are met.
“For the meetings where all of us can attend together, we’re gonna go together to do that. And the one’s where we can’t, again, it’s all about delegation,” Peter said, later adding, “During the summer, we will be meeting to plan and figure out what we want to do, or what common goal that we can set as the three of us.”
Current SGA President Zetta Cannedy has been working with Peter to ensure a smooth transition of power.
“Zetta’s trying to just get me into the presidency. So right now, actually, it’s more of a ‘Hey, I have this meeting to go to, you should attend with me,’” Peter said.
Peter described his anticipated difficulties making connections in the Wichita Falls community, but said Cannedy also provided him a contact list for people to collaborate with when planning events such as February’s candidate forum. Peter said he wants to expand the campus’s student involvement in the community, highlighting the Red Cross’s blood drive as an example.
“I think, especially for me as an international student, where I may not have these, much, local connections, it’s important to get people who are within the community and try to use the connections that they have,” Peter said.
Throughout the 2023-2024 academic year, MSU has been working to grow its alliance with Sheppard Air Force Base, a project that Peter says he intends to contribute to.
“It was one of the ideas I had with, like, some of the other organizations I’m involved with. I was like, ‘Hey, why don’t we just always send invitations out to the Sheppard Air Force Base?” Peter said, later adding, “Let them know what’s happening on our campus and get them out there.”
Peter said he wants to inform students about services the university provides that they may not know about, highlighting the availability of dental insurance as an add-on for student insurance. Peter also mentioned the Midwestern State University Credit Union, which offers scholarships to members.
Peter and Cannedy will attend the Board of Regents meeting in Lubbock on May 9, where Cannedy will announce she is leaving her role as MSU’s SGA president.
“That will be her last meeting and then I will be the person who will be doing the reports at the Board of Regents moving forward. And again, she does plan in the month of May to just, like, meet with us,” Peter said.
