By Emma Posey

The 2026 Student Government Association election has opened, and by now you’ve probably seen a yard sign on campus, been offered a button, or been approached by a stranger in the SAC asking for your support. Or at the bare minimum, you’ve received a follow request from an SGA candidate on Instagram.  

For some students, the Student Government Association campaign season is all too familiar. Some are used to the buzz and the theatrics. But this isn’t the case for every University of Louisville student; for others, it can feel foreign or out of reach.  

So, what is SGA? What does it do? Why does it matter? 

The student voice

The purpose of SGA is “to elicit and express the opinions, suggestions, and recommendations of the student body of the University of Louisville,” according to its constitution. 

SGA aims to represent the diverse perspectives in U of L’s student body and communicate their concerns to university administrators.  

It is a governing body with three “Arms”: the programming arm known as the Student Activities Board, the service and outreach arm called the Engage Lead Serve Board and the Student Organization Advisory Board is the student involvement arm.  

The associations’ executive, judicial and legislative branches are similarly modeled after the U.S. government. 

The Executive Branch 

The executive branch includes the student body president, executive vice president, academic vice president, services vice president, and 12 staff members.  

Anytime students walk up the Student Activity Center’s main ramp, and see banners lining the light posts, they are looking at the four currently elected executive officials, the Top 4.  

For the 2025-2026 academic year, SBP Macy Waddle, EVP Anna Hernandez, AVP Kathleen Price, and SVP Grant Avis hold the positions. The executive staff assist with internal affairs, marketing, outreach, communications, policy and support each Top 4 member. 

The SBP, Waddle, is the primary representative of the student body to faculty, staff and administration. She serves on the University Board of Trustees, U of L Athletic Association and is a non-voting member of the U of L Foundation Board of Directors.  

She provides a student perspective on changes in university policy. The SBP serves on university committees like the budget steering committee and helps create the $1.35-million SGA budget. 

Hernandez, the EVP, manages relations with U of L Athletics, Campus Constituencies and runs the Student Senate. She is the main point of contact for student senators and chairs the senate executive board committee, which each of the university’s college presidents serve on.  

She also helps coordinate athletics week and senate leadership events. 

The AVP, Price, manages academic policies and programming. She works closely with the university’s academic units. 

The AVP represents students in the Faculty Senate and chairs the academic policy committee. She has organized textbook drives and mix and mingle events for graduate professional schools. 

Avis, the SVP, works with all student service departments, most notably housing, parking, dining, and campus safety.  

He chairs the services committee of the Student Senate and sits on university committees related to student services, like dining advisory and parking advisory.  

“I’m always communicating with administrators, telling them student concerns, making sure that they are responsive to what we have to say,” Avis said. 

The Legislative Branch 

The legislative branch is made up of college senators, college presidents and vice presidents, each elected by the student body.  

The branch also includes student councils. Any student can serve on their college’s council without an election. Student Senate reviews university policies affecting the student body and voices student concerns with proposed changes.  

Last semester, The Louisville Cardinal reported on the increased amount of campus sexual violence and the lack of rave alerts on those incidents.  

Regan Ruggerio, president of the College of Arts and Sciences, saw the article and wrote a resolution to combat it.  

“I talked to the council, we sat down and asked, what do we think should be changed?” said Ruggerio. “We wrote a resolution where students could opt in to an additional program where the status of any sort of violent incidents on campus would be shared.”  

This is one of many resolutions that the legislative branch has introduced. Additional efforts have been made towards issues regarding syllabi access, addressing neurodivergent student needs, and course fees, Ruggerio said. 

The senate also has committees that focus on specific student concerns: 

  • Executive committee: The Top 4 and college presidents analyze nearly all of SGA’s proposed legislation. 
  • Academic policy and student services committees: Advise the AVP and SVP. 
  • Services policy committee: Deals with housing, dining, parking, and campus safety policy. 
  • Appropriations committee: Deals with policy about finances. 
  • Legislative review and oversight committee: Reviews past legislation and evaluates bylaws. 
  • Development board: Removes SGA officers if necessary. 

The Judicial Branch 

SGA’s judicial branch contains the SGA Supreme Court, consisting of seven justices from colleges across the University.  

The judicial branch handles disputes between student organizations, disputes between branches, elections, and interprets the SGA constitution and bylaws in situations where it is questioned. 

Justices are appointed by the SBP and confirmed by the Student Senate. Once appointed, justices can hold their position until graduation. 

The chief justice, currently Morrigan Mcintosh, oversees the bylaws and SGA General Election Rules. 

She and her fellow justices settle cases where candidates may be in violation of the rules. 

SGA’s authority 

SGA is not a sovereign power that can fix any problem. It has no supreme authority over the university’s operations, but elected officials inform the university’s decisions about key issues. 

Federal laws affecting Kentucky’s public universities, new parking developments and student fees are just a few concerns on the table.  

When built last semester, the parking lot on Fourth Street and Cardinal Boulevard was only available to faculty members. After Avis voiced the need for more student parking, the university opened half the spaces to students.       

Suggestions from student senate and the Top 4 are attempts at creating a campus environment that reflects student needs.  

How to vote 

The 2026-2027 academic year election opened at midnight on Monday, Feb. 23, and will close at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 25.  

Students were sent a ballot link to their email. Clicking on the link lets them vote for the Top 4, college presidents, college vice presidents and student senators.