SGA President Kiva Maxwell prepared for campus improvement

Kiva Maxwell is the 2021-22 president of the Student Government Association at Oklahoma Christian University.

Maxwell, a senior elementary education major, explained what SGA does on the Oklahoma Christian campus.

“SGA is a place where students get to make a decision and are empowered to change campus and improve a business, for the better,” Maxwell said. “We are empowered to promote being an Oklahoma Christian like we want to.”

Maxwell described SGA as a student-led organization which improves life and encourages students on campus.

Regarding a possible improvement, Maxwell said SGA could help improve support for the athletic programs on campus. Due to COVID-19, students could not gather to support teams during games, so Maxwell said she expects SGA to encourage students to start going to games again.

Also, Maxwell said she is looking forward to getting people involved in SGA who may not be in a club or have roles in their department. SGA holds open meetings every Wednesday, and Maxwell wants everyone to come.

“I think everyone brings a unique and diverse perspective, and I want to hear what everyone has to say because I know I have blind spots as a president,” Maxwell said. “I want to be able to provide a voice to keep us able to talk to administration about things that are going on with students to create a more diverse society.”

Students at Oklahoma Christian can expect SGA to listen to student voices. Maxwell said she is ready to listen and improve student life on campus.

“Tell me what you love to see on campus and tell me how I can get it done because I want to be a part of it,” Maxwell said. “SGA’s goal is to serve students as a whole and make sure their time at Oklahoma Christian is the best that it could be.”

Maxwell’s goal as SGA president is to promote unity and listening across campus.

“We need to listen to each other to understand what’s going on,” Maxwell said. “I want SGA to be a collective voice for the campus. I want our voice to be the loudest that it can be, not my voice.”

Maxwell said she has great executive members and great teamwork to achieve these goals and motivate her as the president. 

According to Maxwell, Sarah Gregory, the SGA vice president, is great at communicating and brings a fresh perspective. Maxwell said Jaylynn Mast, the SGA secretary, helps Maxwell with kindness and organizing and facilitating. Maralee Edmonds, is the first graduate student to serve as SGA treasurer. Maxwell said Edmonds brings experience and wisdom from different perspectives.  

Although this is Maxwell’s first time serving as the SGA president at Oklahoma Christian, Maxwell brings experience working as an SGA member for several years during both college and high school.  

“I think I want to promote a campus that’s diverse and unified,” Maxwell said. “My message for students is get out, go make friends with, go try and meet new people every week, maybe invite someone to coffee that you don’t know because we cannot be unified if we don’t know each other.”