Voting for the annual Student Government Association elections has come to a close and the results are in.

Jessica Malskis was elected as student body president, replacing this year’s president Shavonna Bent. Dana Prouty won the election for student body vice president, replacing Kate Abdel-Fatah, and Patrick Bell and Haley Frechette will be next year’s SGA senators.

The SGA serves several purposes on Johnson’s campus, but mainly the group acts as a liaison between the student body and the administration, faculty and community, while also promoting student involvement in activities and events at the college.

While Malskis is new to JSC this year, she’s had ample time to participate in events on campus, like co-chairing the SGA’s annual fundraising event, Casino Night, and has gotten to work with the current SGA president and vice president to see firsthand what makes the student body tick.

Malskis served as an SGA senator and then secretary at her previous school in New York and currently acts as Public Relations Manager for the SGA here at Johnson. She also serves as the secretary for the Vermont State Colleges Student Association. These are all experiences she strongly feels have prepared her for her new role as SGA president.

“Shavonna [Bent] has done an excellent job throughout her years as president and I feel we really see eye-to-eye,” Malskis said in an email to Basement Medicine. “I really hope to keep things running as they are while bringing my own personal strengths to the table. Being an advocate is an extremely important role to me in life and I hope I can be that girl for a wide variety of students next year.”

Prouty is currently an SGA senator and said she was looking to take on more responsibility going into her senior year, which is why she decided to run for vice president. In her role as vice president, she will oversee the student senators and ensure SGA members are consistently available to hear student concerns.

“I like to step up and take responsibility in anything that I do,” Prouty said. “My goal is to try to hear more from the students themselves on what they want to see on campus and hopefully meet their needs and wants.”

SGA meetings largely act as a forum for students to express their concerns and ideas about campus policies, rules and procedures. In addition, the SGA provides funding for clubs and events on campus such as Casino Night, Family Weekend and the Ally Dinner.

Beyond the standard call of duty, Malskis has a few specific ideas for her time in office. She says that she knows the difficulties commuter students can face when it comes to making friends, getting to know the campus and staying informed about school events. The SGA hosts a monthly Commuter Coffee, which Malskis hopes to expand and bring to more students’ attention. Here, commuter students can meet other students (commuter or otherwise) and get updates about campus and upcoming events — things they may not get unless they regularly eat in the dining hall.

Malskis has also been working with Jeff Bickford to get a student representative on the Diversity Task Force Committee.

“Back home at SUNY Plattsburgh, there were riots and violence occurring due to racism and racist threats,” Malskis said. “It was too close to home . . . I reached out to Jeff [Bickford] to explain the importance of this issue to me and asked if he needed any assistance to ensure that the issues back home would never occur here.”

Both Malskis and Prouty enjoyed landslide victories.