U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Montgomery) returned to the University of Alabama last week for a reception of Student Government Association alumni, where the SGA Lobby was named in honor of longtime student affairs administrator Dr. Kathleen Cramer – who Britt credits as a cornerstone mentor of hers.
The reception fell during the University’s homecoming week.
“Such a special evening reconnecting with fellow SGA alumni at the University of Alabama last week! It was especially meaningful to celebrate Dr. Kathleen Cramer’s amazing legacy by naming the SGA Lobby in her honor,” Britt wrote after.
“Dr. Cramer was an incredible mentor to me and countless others at UA. For generations of students at the Capstone, she was the steady hand and driving force who always believed that more was possible and could be achieved. This event was a wonderful way to honor her legacy and remember what it means to come back and give back.”
Such a special evening reconnecting with fellow SGA alumni at the University of Alabama last week! It was especially meaningful to celebrate Dr. Kathleen Cramer’s amazing legacy by naming the SGA Lobby in her honor.
Dr. Cramer was an incredible mentor to me and countless others… pic.twitter.com/ltyCj4PPkI
— Senator Katie Boyd Britt (@SenKatieBritt) October 27, 2026
Britt served as SGA vice president for student affairs before winning the presidency for the 2003-04 school year. She recounted last year on the Katie Miller Podcast what pushed her to run for the top job.
“Even when I got into SGA, I ran for Vice President of Student Affairs. And after the first debate, a friend of mine came up to me and he said, ‘Gosh, you’re really good up there…It’s too bad you won’t go any further…because you’re a girl.’ It was that moment I thought that I was going to run for SGA President, and you can either be with me or you’re going to have to beat me. But I am going to show people what’s possible,” Britt said.
Cramer spent 36 years at the Capstone. She started in 1975 as assistant to the dean of student life, ran the Office of Student Life from 1989 to 1994 and retired in 2012 as senior associate vice president for student affairs.
She holds three degrees from the University. She was the founding adviser of the XXXI and the Blackburn Institute, worked with students on the creation of Big Al as the official mascot, and helped with the constitutional convention that reinstated the SGA.
The University suspended student government in February 1993 after independent presidential candidate Minda Riley was attacked in her home. Students did not ratify a new constitution until 1996. Every SGA president since, Britt included, took office under the document Cramer helped put in place.
The SGA’s top executive cabinet award carries Cramer’s name. So does the Kathleen Cramer Cup, awarded at halftime of the homecoming game to the winning student group in the Crimson division.
Cramer was named a NASPA Pillar of the Profession in 2008 and inducted into the UA Student Affairs Hall of Fame in 2015. The University called her back out of retirement twice, as interim dean of students in 2018 and interim vice president for student life from 2019 to 2020.
The University of Alabama’s student government politics has in large measure defined the State of Alabama’s politics throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.
Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.
