My name is Danny Reeves, a junior political science and international affairs and communications double major from Hershey, PA. This Tuesday, I had the privilege of being sworn in as President of your Student Government. Both Wake Forest and Student Government, have greatly impacted my life as a Wake Forest student. I believe when you love something you must invest in its growth. Our campus is an ever growing and changing community that is experiencing development unlike any other period in our history. This is why now, more than ever, we must push ourselves and our institution to be better.

It is my utmost pleasure to serve in this role and I look forward to pushing myself to better our community.  So first, on behalf of the entire Executive board, Secretary Maia Kennedy, Treasurer Sydney Packard, Speaker of the House Will Hargrove, and Chief of Staff Daniel Oberti — I would like to thank you very much for electing us. Secondly, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight and outline some of our goals for the upcoming year. Unfortunately, most students on our campus likely don’t know who is in Student Government, or what we do. The question of “what does Student Government even do?” flows from student mouths more than complaints about parking. The fact that most students don’t know what our organization does exposes our faults. Currently, we are benchmarking other schools to make sure our individual committees are best supporting the university community. The opportunities to engage with our community in the realms of sustainability, diversity and safety are discussed on campus but require more direct attention within our governing body. Similarly, outreach and transparency will continue to be a primary focus of Student Government moving forward.

In addition to these general goals, I personally hope to focus on the areas of mental health and wellness with attention to alcohol abuse. We look forward to structurally reforming this organization to become a more involved and transparent part of our community. This week, Student Government implemented a demographic survey to evaluate the types of voices represented within our organization. In addition to re-evaluating the structure and conversation of the organization, we hope to evaluate and recognize the identities in the room.

For the past three years, I have been fortunate to learn from amazing leaders and administrators on this campus. I can only hope that over the next year we can come together as a community and continue to push the boundaries and show what it means to be a true Demon Deacon. As previously stated, we plan to connect, grow and foster positive relationships throughout campus. We hope to start this initiative with a general meeting next Thursday in Benson 410 from 5:00 p.m.-6:00p.m. where we will engage in conversation with diverse campus leaders on coordinating future SG events and will continue these conversations throughout the academic year. 

Effective change takes time and input from many voices on campus and I hope to be a small piece of this continually evolving process. Next year, I look forward to working with students throughout campus. If you would be interested in speaking, feel free to contact us at [email protected], or through our Facebook and Instagram @wake_sg and Twitter @wakesg. Thank you very much and Go Deacs.

Sincerely,

Danny Reeves

Student Government President

2018-2019