Christopher Curry/ The Towerlight

Brandy Hall was recently elected Student Government Association President for the 2012-13 school year. Hall is the second black female SGA president in the history of Towson to be elected. The Towerlight interviewed Hall the day before her executive board’s first meeting.

Towerlight: How do you feel now that the election process is over?

Brandy Hall: I’m feeling really good, I’m feeling really confident. I’m glad the elections are over now because that is always a stressful time, and now we can focus on our initiatives and lay out our plans to get all of them done.

* TL: What’s your top priority going into next year and your first meeting?

Hall: The priority list will be made by the end of the semester. After our first executive board meeting we will be sending out a checklist to everyone with our initiatives. I know the first thing I’d like to do is have a meeting with the executive board and senators and any representatives who have been appointed about the vibe that we want to create to push toward the next semester. We have all summer and I don’t want that to go to waste. The rest of the executive board and I will be here two days out of the week every week over the summer. That is the time commitment that we have all dedicated.

* TL: What are some concrete initiatives that you would like to see accomplished next year?

Hall: If we are talking about concrete initiatives, we want to increase student involvement with the athletic programs. A lot of students get excited about football, but they don’t show up to other sports. Our vice president-elect Charlotte Ridgeway wants to work with the athletic department to set up more tailgates prior to football games. We also want to open up forums and discussions through the student task force and have healthy conversation about issues on campus about how we as a student body can come together and eliminate them. We also hope to get an SGA blog up and running before the semester is over.

TL: What do you think is going to be your biggest challenge next year?

Hall: Well I’m not exactly sure. This year it was YWC [Youth for Western Civilization], and we got hit with that over the summer, although I know that people want to hear what the SGA is doing regarding the hate speech and discrimination on campus, and I am happy to say that next Wednesday I have a meeting with [University] President Loeschke about this issue and what we are going to do to address it, and I was also asked to be on the president’s task force for diversity.

* TL: You brought up the task force, and that is something that is a really hot topic right now. What would you like to see come out of the task force?

Hall: I’d definitely like to see events come out of the task force, rather than have it just be us sitting in a room talking about the problem. I want to come up with ways to talk to students about their problems on campus, and events would be a wonderful way to collaborate with other student groups and apply for a collaborative fund with the SGA, which Ben [Treasurer-elect Mendelsohn] just gave me a copy of the application for, so that we can have diversity events on campus with other groups.

TL: You are the second black female SGA president to be in office, so what does that mean to you?

Hall: It means a lot to me. I’m glad that it’s happening but it’s disappointing that it took this long for me to be that person. It’s not a race thing to me though, to me it’s if you are passionate about Towson and people see that, then they are going to support you.

TL: One of the biggest concerns for Towson students next year is the budget, which could be cut greatly if a balanced budget isn’t passed.

Hall: Obviously if one of the budget gets cut, tuition is going to increase about 10 percent as far as I’m aware. I really want students to communicate with their representatives and senators, much like we did at Tiger Pride Day this year. We will also want to work with other SGAs in the University System of Maryland.

* TL: Next year is going to be Loeschke’s first full year as president, so what do you think are the advantages of having her in her first year along with you?

Hall: I think it’s wonderful. She is a wonderful woman and is very personable and down-to-earth. I feel that if I come to her with a concern, she will listen to it, she will be willing to talk to me about it and talk about the steps to move forward and take action, and not just saying it, but doing it. We have seen her do it with this executive board, such as Michael Ukoha’s initiative with the international flags, so I trust and believe in her that when she says something will be done, it will be done.

* TL: Is there anything else that you’d like to add?

Hall: It’s rare for a full board to get in, and we’ve come in here with initiatives that will be done, and we want to move forward and get the board up and running. If students have any concerns, they should just come into the office and hang out because we want to make the office more personable this year.