Piedmont Community College’s (PCC) Student Government Association (SGA) recently attended a mock legislative session as part of the College Legislative Assembly.
The College Legislative Assembly (CLA) is a partnership between the Youth Legislative Assembly (YLA) and the NC General Assembly. This year the CLA was partnered with the North Carolina Comprehensive Community College Student Government Association (N4CSGA) division meetings, to engage and encourage more college students to attend. The mock legislative session allowed more than 80 college students the opportunity to debate and vote on real bills that were recently voted on in the Senate and House of Representatives.
PCC’s SGA was able to interact with real legislators and state leaders, like North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell and North Carolina Community College President Dr. Jeff Cox being among those in attendance.
“I found the experience enlightening and informative,” Tommy Williams, PCC SGA President said. “I’ve personally never had much interest in politics, but the process has always been vaguely understood. This shed a light on more specific processes and allowed some firsthand interactions with some of our representatives, which helped humanize them and demystify them a great deal.”
“I quite enjoyed the experience,” Jeremiah Senegal, PCC SGA Parliamentarian said. “It was amazing to see bills get passed and discuss topics with like-minded individuals.”
“It was a great way for our students to see legislation in action and be part of it,” Tiffany Skouby, PCC’s Student Engagement Director and SGA Advisor said.
PCC’s SGA has a history of being involved in issues affecting North Carolina community colleges. In 2023 when the introduction of Senate Bill 692 threatened to remove the SGA president from serving as an ex officio member on local boards of trustees, PCC’s SGA President, and President of the N4CSGA LaTasha Bradford, went and spoke to members of the Senate Higher Education Committee about the importance of community colleges keeping a student representative on both the local and state board. ( www.ednc.org/04-19-2023-bill-proposing-governance-overhaul-of-community-college-system-moves-forward )
Most recently, current SGA President Tommy Williams had the opportunity to read a letter from PCC’s Board of Trustees at the N4CSGA fall division meeting. This letter voiced their support of having the SGA president serve on PCC’s Board of Trustees.
PCC’s SGA is a student representative body that promotes student advocacy, voting initiatives, budget recommendation, student events, support of student organizations and community service. For more information about SGA, contact Tiffany Skouby at [email protected].
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