SGA president’s message to UWA students: Get involved
UWA Student Government President Aaron Lee is a 21-year-old senior from Moundville. (Photo: Jordan Allison)
Student leadership roles run deep in Lee’s family
Story: Phillip Tutor
Armed with a megawatt smile and ample familial assistance, Aaron Lee appears perfectly suited for the presidency of the University of West Alabama’s Student Government Association. He’s a senior. His sister, Aeriel Lee, is a UWA alumna. Two of his cousins, siblings Jasmine Knox and Jonathan Knox, are former SGA presidents at UWA. Though not preordained, his election seems exactly that.
His interest in politics emanates from a desire to be a voice for UWA’s student body.
“I would listen to my parents talk about state politics, and I’d try to learn from and understand more from that,” Lee said. “I’m not a very political person, but I want to see what I can change a little bit on campus.”
The 21-year-old senior from Moundville is majoring in sport management and minoring in integrated marketing communications. His desire, for now, is to become a sports broadcaster or sports agent. His consistent thought about attending law school after graduating from UWA — a nod to working as a licensed sports agent — is his only political hint. “I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer,” he said.
Elected by the student body for the 2022-23 academic year, Lee heads the SGA’s executive council that includes five fellow students: Vice President Hannah Sears; Secretary Chelsea Turner; Business Manager Rob Lewis; Attorney General Kayla Holley; and Public Relations Director Joseph Worthy. Fourteen students serve the SGA’s legislative branch as senators, each representing a class, a division/college, fraternity and sorority life or campus housing. Three others serve in at-large roles. The SGA held one of its first events of the 2022-23 academic year when it hosted a town hall on Sept. 21 at Bridges Auditorium on campus.
The SGA town hall included discussion of some general goals, like improving communication between the student body and the SGA members who represent them. They explored ideas for SGA’s executive council to strengthen relations between students and various student-facing departments on campus. They even talked about the role SGA could have in influencing menu items at campus dining facilities. A major highlight was planning for a nighttime safety walk around campus with University Police Department to look for potential risks and ways to be proactive.
At UWA, the soft-spoken Lee sees the SGA president’s role as a conduit for conversations more than as an advocate for campus-wide changes in university structures or policies. But he isn’t without ideas. Given that Livingston is a small town in Alabama’s Black Belt, Lee would like to see more on-campus activities added to the university’s calendar of offerings. He welcomes opportunities to discuss with administrators ways to improve various parts campus. He’s interested in opportunities to help enhance UWA’s gathering spaces and student hangouts. He and other SGA representatives met this summer with Alabama state legislators during a Higher Education Partnership event at the state Capitol in Montgomery.
Likewise, he’s keenly aware that his presidential title puts him in a leadership position within UWA’s diverse student body. “I like seeing how everybody’s backgrounds and ethnicities are different,” he said. “I like being able to try to bring everybody together.” As president of the student body, he is recognized as someone who can help facilitate new ideas and change.
“Students follow our communications and what we promote on social media,” he said. “Sometimes they will come up to me and ask different questions, then, ‘How do I get involved?’ or ‘How can I change something?’”
One of Lee’s persistent themes is the need for UWA students to participate in activities, advice he gleaned from conversations with his cousins. Besides taking classes and fulfilling his SGA role, Lee also is a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
“When I talk to my friends or other people I meet daily, I just tell them to get involved,” he said, “because you don’t know that whoever you meet could make an impact for that day. You could learn from them, and you have to make friends or have connections.” That advice applies now, he believes, and possibly later, as well. “If you want to have a job one day, you can get that connection and that has to start right here, now.”
