Next week, some upperclassmen might avoid Ped Walkway in an effort to dodge another Student Government Association election. Freshmen will be experiencing their first election season, without much of a clue.

Actually, most upperclassmen don’t have much of a clue either.

Designed to serve students as a forum for student expression, senior studying nuclear engineering and current SGA election commissioner Matthew Herald said SGA “works to create an environment conducive to growth for all students.”

“It’s how people get their voice heard, how they can make an impact on this campus by bringing bills before the Senate or by working on the student services committee to make a change,” Herald said. “It’s like the premier way to hear the student voice.”

Although a forum for students, according to Herald, has a common misconception that those in SGA don’t listen to the voices of the student body.

“I’d say the most common misconception is that everybody in SGA is self-interested in working towards just their own interests,” Herald said. “There are a lot of phenomenal people in SGA who really spend a lot of time making sure their constituents are heard, make sure they are the ones sponsoring legislation, co-sponsoring legislation, getting up before the Senate defending that legislation and persuasively arguing why this is a change that we need to see on campus.”

Student voices are amplified by various parts of SGA, including the executive, legislative and judicial branches and the student services branch’s committees.

Elected each year, the president, vice president and student services director appoint an executive cabinet consisting of a treasurer, communications director, secretary, external director and chief of staff.

The student body president looks to represent concerns, interests and needs of the student body, while appointing justices and administrative committees. The vice president serves as president of Senate and as an advisor to the First-Year Council, while appointing at-large members in Senate and selecting the First Year Council members. Student services directors find a director for each of nine committees, while also finding members to fill each committee.

Meeting each week, the executive cabinet shares what is happening on campus, in Senate and ensuring campaign promises are being fulfilled.

The legislative branch houses Senate and First-Year Council. Fifty-two seats of Senate are elected, representing each academic college and North, South, East and West campus. The vice president appoints the final eight at-large seats for a total of 60 senators.

“It’s a lot of people with very different ideas of how to make campus better and what actions to take to get there,” senior studying public administration Jake Tidwell said. “I think it’s good to have all those different perspectives in the same room.”

First-Year Council also boasts 60 members who plan events with student services and work with Senate to produce legislation that is seen as beneficial to first-year students. First-Year Council is often seen as a stepping stone to a seat in Senate, although it is not always the route taken.

Herald, current executive treasurer, wasn’t involved with SGA until he decided to run as an engineering senator for current SGA president Ovi Kabir’s Imagine UT campaign. Winning the seat, Herald had to step down after being appointed to the executive cabinet.

“I hadn’t had any involvement with SGA, but it was something I had always wanted to do,” Herald said. “I had heard what they do and a little bit about what their impact is on campus. I knew I wanted to be a part of that.”

Senior studying English and current student services director Maddie Stephens knew she wanted to be a part of the experience too and was drawn to traditions, one of the nine committees. Other committees include academic affairs, diversity affairs, environment and sustainability, government affairs, health and wellness, new student life, technology affairs and Smokey’s Closet.

“I fell in love with Traditions. I thought it was super fun, very much my speed,” Stephens said. “I’m a traditions gal for Tennessee, so it just made sense.”

One misconception, according to Tidwell, is that to be involved with SGA, you have to be interested in legislation.

“I think that the most common misconception is that to be involved in SGA, you have to be interested in legislation or interested in working with administrators or working on issues on campus because there’s so many like student services committees that you can join to just,” Tidwell said. “If you’re interested in just in environment sustainability, you can just join that and do programming with that.”

“Traditions Committee does a lot of big events, like Big Orange Friday, we did The Rock’s 50th birthday, Smokey’s birthday, all Vol tailgates,” Tidwell said. “Basically all the fun UT-themed stuff in SGA.”

Senior studying political science and director of government affairs Jack Larimer said students can easily get involved with SGA through student services committees.

“You don’t have to be elected to serve on the majority of SGA positions,” Larimer said. “We always need help for people to volunteer at things whether it’s Smokey’s Closet or that’s with Environment and Sustainability.”

Senate meetings also provide a way for students to get involved, providing an open town hall at the beginning of each session.

“(Senate) always starts off with open town hall where any student can come in and talk about any issue that is affecting them on campus, anything we’re presenting that they would like to speak about,” Tidwell said. “Basically, they can speak about anything.”

Any student can also suggest a bill, working with a senator to get the bill sponsored or have the senator work on it and bring it before the Senate.

If students are interested in getting involved, they don’t have to wait until election season to be a part of a campaign. There is an interest form that is available year-round and while it may be a moment, each form is reviewed by the student services director.

“Just coming in as a freshman or an underclassman, not really sure where you land, it’s okay to throw a dart and have it completely flop and move onto the next thing,” Stephens said. “This is four years where that’s completely okay, and there’s barely any repercussions because we’re all kind of stumbling through this together, which I think is super awesome.”