Farmer School students to lead Miami's Associated Student Government next year
Pair to take office in May
Farmer School students to lead Miami's Associated Student Government next year
Pair to take office in May
The new leaders of the Miami University Associated Student Government (ASG) for the 2025-26 school year will be Farmer School of Business students. Charles Merrill and Susanne Morrissey won the election for President and Vice President, respectively, in March and will be sworn in next month.
ASG is made up of two branches, Executive and Legislative. The Executive branch is divided up into 13 members of the Executive Cabinet who work with administrators in all areas of student life as well as academics. The Legislative branch is made up of 50 senators, divided up into On-Campus, Off-Campus and Academic Seats as well as 3 members of Senate Leadership. This branch voices student concerns, writes, and votes on legislation weekly.
“it's been a personal initiative for me since being a freshman on this campus to give back to those communities that have shaped me and have formed me into who I am,” Merrill, a rising senior Human Capital Management and Leadership major, explained.
“I'm currently the Speaker of the Student Senate. So, I lead the legislative branch, I run all of our meetings. I do a lot of the behind-the-scenes administrative organization work for ASG in this role,” Morrissey, a rising junior HCML major, said.
The running mates first met through ASG. “We met in ASG couple semesters ago, and honestly, the first day I talked to her, I maybe knew her for 15 minutes, but it seemed like we knew each other since we were young kids,” Merrill said. “She's one of those people that you can just bring up any conversation in the world, and it’ll just seem easy flowing.”
“Our slogan was, ‘Next Starts Now.’ We ran on three pillars, which were mental health, Love and Honor, and life development,” Morrissey said. “We have some initiatives surrounding all of those that are hopefully going to engage the students and really meet them where they're at in their in their processes.”
"This has been months and months of planning, of thinking about what are our pillars going to be, how do we connect best with the students, and what do they want to see?" Merrill said.
Merrill and Morrissey said that their experiences in student government and the business school have helped them be better leaders and students.
“I could talk about the First-Year Integrated Core, learning about the professionalism, the attitude, and the manners, but I think a lot of it goes back to my role in HR and the fact that culture is everything. Everything I've learned in human resources will definitely transfer over to the culture that we want to bring and establish at ASG,” Merrill said. “It's a leadership role, and I think I'm going to learn a lot about how to carry myself. I think it's going to teach me a lot about being confident in my decisions and making sure that anything that I'm putting out there is in the best interest of all students.”
“I'm exposed to all sorts of business situations which, of course, are present as well in the political realm as well,” Morrissey said. “Honestly, I feel like this major can help with being a political leader also. The skills that I gain from the Farmer School would be applicable to any field.”