Dear Skidmore community,
My name is Josh Maxwell, and I have the honor of serving as the president of Skidmore’s Student Government Association (SGA) this year. I am entering my junior year at Skidmore, as well as my third year serving in the SGA.
In my first year, I served as a first-year senator in the SGA. Then, I had the privilege of serving as the vice president for financial affairs (VPFA) last year. That presented me with many opportunities, including chairing the SGA Budget and Finance Committee, serving as the vice chair of the SGA Presidential Task Force on Bylaw Review, sitting on the Falstaff's Operating Committee and designing the Falstaff’s renovation, and many others. My favorite part of being the VPFA was the ability to constantly connect with students and learn what every club had planned for the year. I was consistently impressed with the creativity and leadership of my peers. I’m very excited to take the knowledge that I’ve acquired over the past two years to continue to improve the SGA and student life this year.
I was encouraged to run for SGA president because I saw the immense impact that the organization has on this campus. I was also inspired by the legacy of former SGA officers and I believed that I could continue on with their work.
Outside of being the SGA president, I am also a student, Resident Assistant, and a Head Thoroughbred Ambassador in the Office of Admissions. As a student, I’m double majoring in political science and philosophy, with a double minor in international affairs and the Periclean Honors Forum. This combination of activities and academic interests allows me to be well-connected with many areas of the school that I love.
Returning to the SGA, I’m very excited to lead the organization into a new era. If I could sum up the current state of the SGA in one word, it would be “opportunity.” The past two years have been incredibly consequential and transformative for the SGA. We have worked with College administrative leaders to pass numerous capital projects, including free laundry, the laptop loaning program, free menstrual products, and many others. We also have completely restructured the organization, beginning this year. This includes a change to the composition of the Senate, a new independent Judicial Board, a new Student Events Council, and many other impactful adjustments. The goal of this new structure is to modernize the SGA and allow us to be more effective. Lastly, we have countless new members of the SGA, who are excited to enact change
While all of these changes are something to be proud of and excited about, my main goal as SGA president is to promote the continued intentionality of our programs to ensure their success. This means continuing to evaluate the effectiveness of our previous initiatives and make any necessary adjustments. It also means devoting serious attention to educating the members of the SGA and Skidmore community on our new structure. I am prepared to spend time and allocate resources to mentoring and training new members to assist them in being effective student legislators. These actions are aimed at making the SGA a more sustainable organization and allow us to continue to advocate for our peers.
I also want to examine what it means to be an SGA senator. For too long, we have heard that senators don’t feel involved in the legislative process. I think that has to change, and I will institute programs that promote senator leadership. Similarly, I want the SGA to continue to be a professional organization, but also a group that students want to participate in. This means hosting intentionally fun events and fostering an SGA community. I hope that these changes will allow senators to feel more appreciated and encourage retention within the organization.
Similarly, I strive to improve recruitment efforts. A great new resource we have is our vice president for engagement and outreach (VPEO) position, which is currently held by David Aybar ‘26. VPEO Aybar and I will be very visible before the fall elections and throughout the academic year to encourage SGA membership.
On the note of engagement and outreach, it is a priority of the SGA to be further involved in our community. We recognize that we can’t be effective leaders if we don’t know our community. So, you will see us at events all year round. We will primarily be there to appreciate and learn more about our community, but please feel free to introduce yourself and share your thoughts with us.
Beyond organizational sustainability and outreach, one of my top priorities for this year is to advocate for more social student spaces. Although we have made improvements in this area over the past few years, such as installing game equipment in the Saratoga Room, I think that the College is lacking in creating student spaces. However, I am encouraged by the fact that this is a priority for both the College Administration, through their Residential Experience Initiative, and the SGA, via capital projects and student activism.
I believe we need more small-scale spaces for students to socialize. Currently, students can either hang out in residence hall rooms, common rooms, or Case Center. In many circumstances, it is uncomfortable to socialize in a residence hall room, and common rooms and Case Center can be loud and lack any semblance of privacy. I think smaller-scale social rooms would be heavily appreciated by the student body.
I also believe that we need to continue to examine spaces for BIPOC and marginalized students and groups. The Wycoff Center is a great start, but we need to continue to do more to allow these groups to feel valued and welcomed. I am appreciative of our new director of the Wycoff Center, Mariel Martin, our new director of Student Diversity and Inclusion, Hillary Montague-Asp, and my SGA colleagues, SGA Vice President for Institutional Diversity Samantha Majiedt ‘27 and SGA Vice President for Student Life Milo Flamenbaum ‘26, among others, who will continue to push the frontier on what affinity spaces look like at Skidmore.
Lastly, my goal is always to assist my peers to further improve the College. So, if you have any concerns, please let me know and I’ll make sure they are addressed. I’m excited to serve and meet you all this year.
All the best,
SGA President Josh Maxwell (sga_prez@skidmore.edu)
For any general inquiries, you can contact the SGA at sga@skidmore.edu.
Cover image courtesy of @skidsga.