Ella Bloom, president of the Slippery Rock Student Government Association (SRGA), will serve as vice chair on the Board of Student Government Presidents (BSGP) through May 2025 after her nomination was announced at the Oct. 21 SRSGA meeting.
According to Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) website BSGP was created as “a unified board of 14 student government presidents that exchange ideas, discuss common issues and interests, and serve the interests of State System students. The group also works to influence policy decisions and advocate on behalf of the State System.”
Bloom’s new position as vice chair is one of four executive board positions within the BSGP. BSGP positions are nominated by other student government presidents.
“[The position] will allow me to push forward more initiatives and kind of lean into bringing the presidents together all across the state to start initiatives and advocate for students,” she said.
Bloom sought a position on the BSGP for multiple reasons, but stated one of her top goals is advocacy for the success of SRU and its students.
“As I am settling into my presidency at Slippery Rock, I think that there is more that I could be doing to advocate for students here at Slippery Rock,” Bloom said. “And one way I thought that would be really helpful to do this is through the Board of Student Government presidents.”
Another area Bloom hopes to influence is the selection of a new chancellor in PASSHE after Dan Greenstein announced his departure in July. Greenstein officially vacated his position on Oct. 11, 2024, and held the position since September 2018.
The interim chancellor is Christopher M. Fiorentino who served as president of West Chester University from 2017 to 2024. Fiorentino will serve until the PASSHE Board of Governors find a permanent replacement and Fiorentino does not intend to apply for a permanent chancellor position, according to PASSHE’s website. A timeline on the website shows plans for appointing a permanent chancellor by spring 2025.
“We have so much power to do so much great, so we really need to lean into that and do a lot of great stuff,” she said. “We need to really use our voice as presidents, to advocate for students across the whole state and that includes government policy and encouraging extra funding for state education.”
Bloom said she would “want someone who is really going to be engaged with student bodies all across the state.”
In addition to advocating for students at SRU and influencing the decision on a new chancellor, Bloom also hopes to empower and collaborate with student government across PASSHE. She said she hopes to share was SRU and SRSGA does best to equip all student governments with tools to be successful in advocating for students.
“The other student governments across the state all function differently and ours definitely has the most autonomy as we oversee all of our organization and we have a pretty large budget so we are able to really give back to our students,” she said.
For example, Bloom noted the office units requirements are one way SRSGA differs from other student governments. Senators at SRSGA are required to do three office units per week. The office units include talking with students in the office, doing committee work or going to SGA events. Bloom said other schools do three units per semester, limiting their scope of interaction with the student body.
Bloom said she will achieve this collaborative goal by “bringing the things at Slippery Rock that make its so special to our students and giving it other universities.”
