Campaigning for the approaching Student Association election on Feb. 17 has begun with the advent of patriotic posters and billboards around the Mississippi State University campus.
In contrast with last year’s election, the presidential race will be the only uncontested race this year. While other candidates might be concerned with their campaign strategies, current SA Attorney General Blake Jeter is not.
Jeter said the elections are good because they always promote a healthy competition and people are talking about it.
“This is something that I wanted to do, and I feel that I can make a difference doing it,” he said. “I feel that I am the most qualified for the job, and I feel that we [new SA executive officers] can do something that can really help students.”
Jeter said he thinks running unopposed will be a good thing because it enables him to work on initiatives he wants to start.
“Instead of being a month behind, I am getting a month’s head start,” he said. “If you look at Braxton [Coombs] last year, he was having to campaign until the last day in a really good race and then turn around, having to transition to get everything ready.”
Vision
Jeter said his vision is to improve each individual’s experience at MSU.
“My job as SA President is not to make the SA look good, it is to improve your experience and not make us look the best to make sure that everything we do is with purpose,” Jeter said.
He said his first act in office will be to evaluate the different programs within the SA.
“One of my first points on my platform will be to evaluate everything we do in the SA, and if it does not improve a student’s experience or does not move it forward then we need to cut,” Jeter said. “There are probably a couple of things in the SA that do not do that and we are either going to revamp it or cut it.”
Textbooks
Jeter said the first thing he want to accomplish in office is changing the textbook policy.
“If students can spend a couple of hundred dollars on textbooks a year, that’s improving the experience,” he said.
He said if there are alternative ways for students to get books, then Barnes & Noble has to lower prices.
“Like the economy now, if you are not going to be competitive with your prices, then you go out of business,” he said. “I think that should be the first thing we do that will improve everybody’s experience here at State.”
Jeter said faculty and students will have to work hand in hand in order to help curb this process.
“I know last year Braxton had sent out an e-mail talking about sending in your books earlier and that helped out a lot,” he said. “However, that still does not address the problem if the publishers are giving incentives for [changing textbook editions.]”
Campus Involvement
Jeter said he wants to have a program that encourages students as freshmen to become more involved at State.
“I have heard from a different university that they have a program where they encourage students to begin being involved,” Jeter said. “I do not want them to join five or zero, but I just want them to find one organization that they want to be in.”
With the administration’s backing, this idea can be presented to incoming students during orientation, he said.
“What I would like it to be is a motto for freshmen, and we would have a Web site devoted to it,” Jeter said. “Hopefully that will be a way to grow not only the SA but other organizations so there will be more involvement on campus because that improves a student’s experience and gives them a better chance for success.”
For more information about presidential
candidate Blake Jeter’s campaign,
visit blakeforpresident.com.
Editor’s Note: This is the first part
of a three-part series on important
issues in the upcoming SA
presidential election. Look for profiles
of the candidates in the Feb. 17
issue.