Each year, the Student Government Association (SGA) aims to be a unified voice for the student body, discussing issues students are facing in an effort to solve them and bring them to administrative attention, according to the SGA website. Without each individual member within the governing body, this would be impossible, Student Body President Myers Mentzer said.
SGA is comprised of three groups: the executive board, senate and directors. Though each group and individual member holds different responsibilities, it is this separation of duties and powers that make it so productive, Mentzer said.
“That kind of shows like, different roles and how power is equally split, because that’s again, one of the most important things in government, to have split power,” Mentzer said.
SGA’s executive board contains the student body president, executive vice president, vice president of administration and vice president of finance. Mentzer said the vice president of finance takes care of all finance-related tasks and the vice president of administration keeps track of meeting minutes, documents, reports, filing and all emails students receive from SGA.
Mentzer said the key difference between the student body president and the executive vice president is external vs. internal. The executive vice president helps manage the people within the senate, making sure they are getting their jobs done and are informed on how to go about them.
Mentzer described her current role as “everything that’s external,” with her main job being to bridge the gap between administration and the senate. When administration asks her to represent the student body’s voice, opinions and needs, Mentzer said she relies heavily on the information she receives from the senate, who gets that from each of their classes.
“Many times I’ll get called on from our senior administrators that will just call me and ask for my opinion on things like ‘What’s the pulse on our students? How are they feeling? What are they thinking? What are they saying?’” Mentzer said.
Infographic by Amanda Monahan
One such member of SGA who plays an integral role in sharing this information is Freshman Class President Owen Braniff. As the president of his class, the class of 2028, Braniff said he helps communicate the needs of his class to the executive board, who can then share that with the administration.
However, Braniff’s role goes beyond communication. He said he plans for class town halls, tabling, events and reads into bills and potential amendments that are being proposed. He emphasized the importance of the student body attending their class town hall meetings, as they give students a space to meet with their representatives.
“It’s a well-known fact that people don’t like to read their emails,” Braniff said. “So the reason why town halls are so important to attend is because it’s the best time to get face time with your representatives.”
SGA also holds three director positions, which are appointed staff chosen by the executive board each year: the director of the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) council, the director of social media and marketing and the director of the general judicial council.
Mentzer said the DEI council works with student clubs and ensures SGA’s wording is respectful and inclusive of all students on Pepperdine’s campus, while the director of social media handles the SGA Instagram page, making sure students know about their events.
Mentzer compared the director of the general judicial council role to the judicial branch of government. If there were to be any impeachment, trial or constitutional interpretation necessary, it would be this director’s role to take care of it manage it.
Mentzer said a key difference in powers between the senate and directors is that directors cannot vote on anything SGA does — voting is only done by the senate. The executive board also does not vote, and the only power they hold in such issues is the power to veto anything that they feel is not in the students’ best interest.
Mentzer joined SGA her first year at Pepperdine and has held a position each year following. She started as a freshman class senator before moving on to sophomore class president the next year, eventually working her way up to executive vice president and now student body president.
Mentzer said her ultimate goal in joining SGA has always been to “raise the standards and raise the bar” for the experience students have at Pepperdine. With her class, the class of 2025, being the largest in Pepperdine history and just coming back from the COVID-19 pandemic as first-years, she wanted to dive into making change for the student body with other like-minded students.
“I just knew I wanted to be involved and I wanted to be with other people that were passionate about making change and also just leading the community,” Mentzer said. “And SGA seemed like the place to do it.”
Though he is the president of his class, Braniff said he knows he could not make change without the support and help of his freshman class senators. He sees his role as communicating the conversations between himself and the senators to the executive board, who can then, as Mentzer said, share that with Pepperdine administration and help create change for the betterment of the entire student body.
“I know that all of the senators and myself, we all come from different areas, have different backgrounds, know different groups of people, which is amazing — that diversity is so helpful,” Braniff said.
Mentzer said things are always changing across Pepeprdine’s campus, which SGA must learn to respond to at any given time. She emphasized the importance of students knowing who to talk to when change or issues come up.
“A big part of SGA is knowing who the decision makers are,” Mentzer said. “You can talk about something to a bunch of people, but if you’re not talking to the person that’s making the decision on it, it doesn’t matter.”
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Contact Amanda Monahan via email: amanda.monahan@pepperdine.edu
