Vice President, Rylee Keasler and President, Kendall Miller. Photo by Carter James, Editor in chief. By Skye Anderson, Lifestyles editor
Results for the 2026–2027 SGA elections were announced on March 18, with Kendall Miller elected as president and Rylee Keasler elected as vice president.
“I remember saying ‘no way’,” said Keasler. “And getting up, jumping over a table and engulfing [Kendall] in a hug.”
“It was just really sweet,” said Miller. “All my friends were there, and they all came and gave me a big hug.”
Miller’s campaign had been in the making since the summer. However, when she first came to Montevallo, she wasn’t interested in SGA at all.
“My friends were in Freshman Forum and they needed more people to apply,” said Miller. “So then I did that and I had a blast my freshman year.”
Later in her freshman year, Miller became president of the Residence Hall Association, which made her the housing senator. “I’d actually go to the executive cabinet meetings just to watch them because I was nosy,” she said. “[That] got me really interested in SGA.”
This year was Miller’s second year as student trustee. “I think just being in those conversations with administration, being so aware of everything that’s going on and being a liaison between students and administration has really made me want to stay in a position like that,” she said. “That’s why I ran for SGA president.”
Serving as UPC coordinator made Keasler an SGA executive member. “It really intrigued me, seeing how this university operated,” said Keasler. “And so that’s what made me want to be SGA vice president, because I see just how much the administration started to actually talk to us and consider our opinions.”
For Miller, the campaign process was all-encompassing. “I always felt like I was supposed to be doing something. I’d be sitting in class, and I’d be like, I need to be campaigning right now,” she said. “I was probably putting more pressure on myself to do all the jobs instead of my campaign team… But I actually really enjoyed campaigning in general. I was really looking forward to it, especially since I had been planning for it for such a long time.”
Miller and Keasler both expressed that they want to increase transparency and accessibility of SGA during their term.
“There’s so much going on on campus right now that people need to be aware of how they can use their voices through SGA,” said Miller. “People need to know that they can come to SGA meetings and they need to know when our meetings are… They need to know who’s in SGA, who they can talk to and get information from.”
“My goal as SGA vice president is to hopefully publicize the senate meetings that happen on Wednesday,” said Keasler. “To publicize that we have a budget, that we can help make this campus better.”
Miller thinks utilizing social media will help achieve this. “When we pass legislation, I want that to be posted on our Instagram so people can actually see… I think a lot of people don’t realize that we’re passing stuff and getting things done on campus,” she said.
Another major concern of theirs is academic advising. “[We want to make] sure that students are getting the advising they need, but also taking the classes that they need,” said Keasler. “Because I’ve heard a lot of students complaining about their advisors telling them to take a class and then it’s not actually offered… I’m hoping to look more into that and potentially send out a survey.”
Keasler urges students to fill out student feedback surveys and make their opinions known.
“If you have availability next semester, please show up to the Senate meetings,” said Keasler. I want everybody there, even if you aren’t on senate… We truly care about the student body’s opinion, and we want to do what benefits us as a whole.”
