Life
Elliot Spillers elected University of Alabama SGA President – he is the First African American in Nearly 40 Years
University of Alabama students earlier this week, elected the second black Student Government Association president in the organization’s 100-year history.
Elliot Spillers, a junior from Pelham, was elected president for the 2014-15 school year, defeating junior Stephen Keller of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Spillers will succeed SGA President Hamilton Bloom.
He will be the first African American executive to lead the student organization since Cleo Thomas, who was elected in 1976. Thomas, a 1977 graduate and trustee emeritus, was UA’s first black president of the student organization, which was founded in 1914.
Students cast 14,931 votes Tuesday. Spillers received 8,602 votes, according to Richard Le Comte of UA Media Relations.
As part of his statement of candidacy, Spillers said he planned to develop a healthy campus initiative that will increase transparency, provide wellness resources for students, and cultivate change in the SGA as well as work to make the SGA more receptive to the needs of a diverse campus.
Spillers is also among a handful of non-Machine candidates to win the presidency. The Machine is the bloc of Greek-letter organizations on campus that typically turns out student voters during elections to back its candidates and has used its clout to dominate campus politics.
Branden Greenberg of Montgomery was elected vice president of student affairs.
