Leadership longevity
“Two-term” Quincy Thompson talks about his experience as SGA president
Liberty University’s Student Body President, Quincy Thompson made school history last April after the rare occurance of becoming student body president for two consecutive terms. Thompson will enter his last semester in office in the spring, and with it, he offers Liberty’s campus another semester of change and growth.
Impact — Since Thompson’s election in 2014, changes have been made to the SGA. Photo credit: Isaac Apon
Thompson, a senior pastoral leadership major, made his start in Liberty’s Student Government Association (SGA) as a hall senator his freshman year, and has since been a driver in creating change within the SGA system. Under Thompson’s presidency, the SGA has a goal of being more active in and around campus and more effective in meeting the demands of students.
“As a hall senator, I went into my first SGA meeting really excited, but left disappointed,” Thompson said. “We talked for an hour-and-a-half over whether the student body president should be required to have a 3.5 or 3.0 GPA. It didn’t feel like we were making an impact, but I stuck with it, and SGA has become much more proactive since then.”
According to Thompson, one concern of students last year was there was no bus route that serviced south campus. Alongside his administration, Thompson oversaw the drafting of legislation to change the bus routes on campus. The ban on rated-R movies was also amended under Thompson’s leadership.
Thompson is mostly known in the SGA, though, for his partnership with the 10 Campaign, a student-driven effort that seeks to deliver clean water to those who need it. Last spring, Thompson’s administration hosted the Clean Water Gala last year, which sold 200 tickets and raised $51,000 to give clean water to impoverished families in Liberia.
“When he leaves, Quincy will best be known for his partnership with the 10 Campaign,” Student Body Vice President Jack Heaphy said. “He was the main driver in hosting the Clean Water Gala last year, and he was able to make a tangible impact on the lives of those in Liberia.”
Heaphy, who along with being Thompson’s vice president is also a long-time friend, pointed to Thompson’s leadership, integrity and strong work ethic as Thompson’s best qualities, and the characteristics that he believes make him stand out as a successful student body president.
“He is a good leader himself, but I really love that he challenges me and our team at SGA to become better leaders,” Heaphy said. “He has a great vision and can see years down the road, and finds ways to better prepare the way for those who will (follow).”
As the student body of Liberty continues to grow — Thompson said many of his recent initiatives in office have been to better prepare the SGA to accommodate the rapid growth of the school.
One such initiative was the drafting of SGA’s new constitution, which is currently in the stages of ratification, and was created to better fill in the holes of the previous constitution, according to Thompson. He hopes that the new constitution will be able to better serve a larger Liberty campus and give direction to future officers.
“Our previous constitution had a lot of gray areas, and no one really knew exactly what (the SGA’s) role was,” Thompson said. “So we refined that, and now we have the document that will be able to sustain the SGA in the future.”
Thompson said that he was also glad to see club life grow exponentially during his reign as student body president. Liberty now has more than 120 clubs on campus, and Thompson played a major part in enabling the SGA to manage the growing number of clubs. He said he did so through growing the SGA treasury. Through Thompson, the SGA has received more money from the University for its budget than ever before.
“Some students don’t realize, but that money is for them,” Thompson said. “The SGA uses its funds to help start up clubs and student initiatives.”
Preparing to enter his last semester as student body president, Thompson plans on re-establishing his partnership with the 10 Campaign in the spring with hopes of raising more money than last year and said he will focus on paving the way for the next student body president.
“I want to leave the SGA better than I found it,” Thompson said. “I want to ensure that when I hand off the baton to the next student body president, that it can be a baton that’s worth passing on.”
After graduation, Thompson said he wants to stay in Lynchburg to pursue a master’s degree at Liberty’s School of Divinity. With it, he hopes to eventually join the staff of a church or plant a church himself.
YOUNG is a feature reporter.