SGA President James Wolfe, right, and Vice President Thomas Tifft, left.

Castleton University’s new Student Government Association leaders are looking to bring some new ideas to feature on campus including ramping up the civility tokens effort and bringing in “Ted Talks.”

After a strong year in 2017-2018, Castleton’s SGA is looking to continue improving campus life for students. Newly elected President James Wolfe and his partner, Vice President Thomas Tifft, said they have big goals for SGA.

Wolfe has already been a huge part of Castleton through his time spent on the Student Orientation Staff and as vice president of Campus Activities Board. Now he looks to have an even larger presence on campus as the active president of SGA.

“I wanted to give something back to the school by means of helping other students,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe, who has wasted no time in his pursuit to help students on campus, says, “We’re getting organized and have developed an open-door policy to encourage students to come in and get involved.”

The hope is that this open-door policy will allow students to ask questions and get to know SGA better.

One of SGA’s main goals is to bring out the community in students. Tifft is still in search of the strategy that will spark this involvement.

“Last year, our advertising wasn’t enough. It’s something on which our SGA team can work together to come up with an answer,” he said.

For Tifft, his motivation stems from wanting to do more for the school.

“I’ve always been huge on getting involved on campus. I started off as a delegate, then SOS, and now a CA. I just love being a part of the Castleton community, and I just want to continue to achieve a greater level of involvement,” he said.

Wolfe spoke of an existing strategy known as the Spartan Civility Token program in which a student can recognize a student’s good deed by awarding him or her with a token, which then could be passed on to another worthy student, helping to create a cycle of students doing great things. This token system is a positive reflection of how to bring out the community in students, Wolfe said.

Tifft said he is looking forward to seeing what his new colleagues on SGA bring to the table in the form of ideas.

“I want to educate people on how to become more involved starting with our own delegates, who should help to create a domino effect. We have so many opportunities for students, but we don’t have big turnouts,” he said.

Wolfe said he is also hoping to launch a “Ted Talk” series on campus.

“I’d like to bring in an educational approach to let the world know what ideas we have and what our students have to offer,” he said.