Some big changes are heading UNC Asheville’s way, with UNC Asheville welcoming its new chancellor, Nancy J. Cable, and a brand new academic year starting this fall. Senior Michael Davis, who will serve as the president of the Student Government Association (SGA) president for 2018-19, sees this time of transition as a great opportunity.
“I heard, if you will, a clarion call from the university, from the students, faculty, staff, and the greater community,” said Davis, a management major focusing in marketing and entrepreneurship. “Our university is going through great transition, I felt that there was an urge, a cry for change for students as well as faculty and staff, to be propelled to a higher level, a greater dispensation, that we all know that we can achieve.”
Davis has been involved in various leadership and service positions at UNC Asheville throughout his college experience, including serving as executive of diversity and inclusion of the SGA, an orientation leader, a Jump Start intern, an AVID mentor, a member of the Black Student Association, and more. Serving as SGA president has been a long-term goal, Davis said, that he is thrilled to have achieved.
Davis says he sees his role as president as serving as a conduit between those in need and those in power, “saying ‘OK, I need you to vote, I need you to speak up, closed mouths don’t get fed.’ And then, ‘I need you, on the other hand, being the leaders, I need you to listen.’”
Davis hopes to start by increasing coordination between various student organizations and helping to improve the sense of community on campus. And that’s going to require a fresh approach, Davis said.
“Some things have been done in ways that’s not bad, they’ve worked for us, we’ve got results, but in order to get things we’ve never had we have to do things we’ve never done,” Davis said. “I want to be that innovation behind, what can we do to better increase student enrollment, and student retention for students of color? What can we do to better get more funds for students to do study abroad? Or to do student led projects throughout the community of Asheville? What can we do to get alumni interactions up with the university?
“Just thinking about different ideas from a different scope than we have before,” Davis said.
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