I sat down with KC Crusoe and Sydnee Cantley. Crusoe is an SGA Senator for the College of Arts and Sciences and is the Vice President-elect for the 2024-2025 school year. Cantley is a member of the Governmental Relations Committee in First Year Council and is the upcoming Student-at-Large for the 2024-2025 school year. They were officially elected to their positions on Wednesday, April 3.

Kim: Why did you run for the positions that you ran for?

Crusoe: I saw there was a need where I could bring change, and that fueled me to go to the next level. I’ve been a senator for the past two years and I wanted to make a bigger difference than what I was already doing.

Cantley: I’m a freshman and, coming to South, the first thing that I did was follow advice from previous students and all of my friends who’ve been in college: get involved. In high school, I didn’t really get involved in SGA and things like that. Once I got to South, I went to try out to be in the First Year Council and that’s truly changed my life in so many different ways. I wanted to continue being involved in the Student Government Association somehow. As someone who’s already gotten involved in so many different organizations, I see the impact it can have on someone’s college experience. I know firsthand how much it can change a student’s life and so I just want to encourage that message and make our student organizations on campus stronger.

Kim: What were your initial reactions to being elected?

Cantley: It was a great feeling. It was a little bit intimidating, because I am a freshman and the only girl on EC next year. There’s a little bit of “woo, this is scary,” but if God didn’t think I was capable of this job, he wouldn’t have put it in my path. I have the courage to step up, speak my voice, and be a representative for all students on campus. I’m very thankful that I have past experiences that can help me through this.

Crusoe: I had the mentality of “if it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen.” When Olivia said my name, I was like, “Oh my gosh, thank you, Jesus!” There were also so many people screaming behind me, so I felt an overwhelming level of support. I had so many friends that were all there rooting and cheering for me, so that was a great feeling. Campaigning is not easy. It was very stressful and I did a lot of walking around campus, a lot of talking to students last week, and so the biggest thing is that being over. (laughs) I loved it, I truly did, I promise you!

Cantley: I can second that. If there’s one thing about KC, it’s that he took the time out of his day to reach out to each person and introduce himself and tell his message and I just applaud him for that. It takes a lot.

Crusoe: I did have to tell myself that enough is enough. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I was campaigning really really hard from sunup to sundown. When it got to Thursday, I campaigned a little that morning and I was just exhausted. When I got back to my room, I just went to bed and watched TikTok videos.

Kim: What do you plan to do in your roles?

Cantley: My platform is built off of three pillars: Strive, Serve, and Success. One thing that I really emphasized was encouraging service. I have a servant’s heart. I have my own non-profit organization that goes with my involvement with Miss America. I’ve seen how far service can go and I know a lot of organizations on campus that serve not just the university, but the Mobile community. Service can make organizations grow closer together. We can strive to do a lot of cool stuff for the university.

Crusoe: I ran on three Es: Experience, Elevation, and Empowerment. My experience is being a senator for the past two years, having sponsored over $30,000 in Senate projects for the College of Arts and Sciences. As for empowerment, I have some guidelines for future senators to know, like this is how you reach out to deans and college chairs, how you get support from constituents, and how you get the message out about what SGA does. As for elevation, the job of a vice president is to oversee all senators. I want all students to know, even if you don’t ever come to a meeting, we are here to help you. We want you to know who your representative is and you can reach out for help with your organization. By the time I’m leaving office as vice president, you’ll be able to say “I do know something about SGA.”

Kim: How do you expect to work with the other executive officers? Have you talked to them about your goals?

Crusoe: The good thing is a lot of us were already friends and we’ve all been working together for the past year already. We’ve seen each other’s platforms. We’re ready to hit the ground running. We already have a group chat and we’re planning to meet. It just goes back to the sense of community we have here in SGA.

Cantley: Same thing here. (laughs)

---

Here is the full Executive Board for next school year:

• Hank Rader, President
• KC Crusoe, Vice President
• Bryce Carver, Treasurer
• Andrew Parton, Chief Justice
• Brock Renicks, Attorney General
• Sydnee Cantley, Student-at-Large

“The Vanguard” sends its congratulations to the newly elected SGA officers and senators.