February 16, 2007

Contact:   Bill Giduz

Davidson students elected a veteran and a neophyte to lead the Student Government Association for the coming year.

Christopher D. Burton ’08 will cap his extensive career in student politics as the new SGA president, having served during the past year as vice president. H. Davis Greene ’09, a political science major from Jacksonville, Fla., will join student government for the first time as incoming vice president.

(l-r) Chris Burton '08 and Davis Greene '09 will lead the SGA for the next year.

The two men will be sworn into office by outgoing president Mac Skelton at the SGA’s weekly meeting on February 22. “I had no intention to run for student government when I came to Davidson,” said Greene. “But I think the school is at a turning point now in terms of social awareness, and SGA is a good place to employ my interests in community service. SGA can partner with and promote existing service organizations to reach their goals.”

Greene serves on the steering committee for the Engage for Change initiative. He mentors youngsters at the Ada Jenkins Community Center after-school program, and is active with the Justice Dialogues group and the Just Peace group.

Burton, a junior from East Orange, N.J., has been involved with student government since fourth grade. He was vice president at Marcus Garvey Elementary School in Brooklyn, a student body representative in junior high, and student body president at Packer Collegiate Institute before enrolling at Davidson and continuing his student government service here. He ran a multimedia election campaign that involved a Facebook group with an online speech, traditional fliers, a radio interview on WALT, a “Stand Up for Your Rights” rally, and in-person visits to discuss issues with members of residence halls and eating houses. Burton was elected from among four contenders, and Greene was among three candidates for vice president.

Burton said that his election will provide SGA with continuity of leadership that should be beneficial. His election campaign emphasis on student rights, and campaign slogan, “Take Ownership,” reflect his ambitions for the SGA in the coming year. “We want to make SGA more of an advocate for student rights, and less of a programming body,” said Burton. “Our potential as individuals on campus is great, and our goal is to get SGA more involved with campus movements to create even more change.”

Burton said he takes pride in his work during the past year to strengthen student involvement in SGA committees. “I met often with committee chairs to emphasize that they’re the arms and legs of SGA,” he said. “We got a record number of non-senators involved in committee work, and our committees accomplished a great deal.”

Those achievements included setting up regular meetings between the SGA and Davidson’s Town Board of Commissioners, a voter registration drive, a religiosity survey, reopening of the Outpost as a Patterson Court snack bar, strengthening student support for the athletics program, and lobbying the college administration for more coed housing options.

In the coming year, Burton said the SGA will restructure its committees to parallel similar groups in faculty and trustee governance. He also hopes to implement a “Real Talk” program of student discussions about Davidson issues, provide leadership training for the forty SGA members, and involve the group with academic curricular planning.

Greene emphasized that the year ahead takes on special import for the SGA because it will be working with a new college president. “It will be exciting and important for this administration to work with the new president on issues like religiosity, coed housing, and diversity concerns. A new administration can potentially make significant changes.”

Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,700 students. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently ranked in the top ten liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report magazine. # # #