President Diana Natalicio and newly elected members of the Student Government Association, along with their families, gathered Friday, May 20, at the Hoover House to celebrate their searing-in ceremony.

Natalicio and Sergio Baltazar, the new SGA president, delivered speeches.

“This time, SGA will try to revolutionize the way we do things and will try to change things that need to be changed nowadays,” Baltazar, a sophomore business major, said during his speech.

Natalicio said the celebration was to congratulate the new members and to celebrate the annual cycle of events.

“For SGA, it is just a terrific opportunity to renew ideas and to pick new projects for us to come up with–really good new ideas for student activities and events and programs and strategies that are helpful to students,” she said in an interview.

Natalicio emphasized the importance of this legislative challenge the new SGA members have to overcome.

“I think what SGA really ought to be is the eyes, ears and voices of all the students, because we have 23,500 students,” Natalicio said. “There are a lot of voices and they need to be heard. So by having college senators, at-large senators and a student government to listen to what people are worried about, what they like, what they don’t like, and channeling that into a single place where we can then sit down and talk about it, is a great response to what I hope the body of SGA is really looking forward to.”

Family members were able to watch their loved ones be sworn in.

“They truly believe in their oath, all the things they were saying and the compromises they took at saying it. One can really tell they honor it,” said the mother of Austin Adams, one of the senators-at-large of the new SGA body.

Grecia Sanchez may be reached at [email protected]