Student Association Attorney General Blake Jeter has plans for several initiatives which range from decreasing textbooks prices to including more stops on the Night Route.
The unopposed candidate for SA president has many ideas that he wants to implement when in office.
Night Route
Jeter said more improvements can be made to the Night Route, especially since there has been growth in ridership and funds.
“We have to keep looking for alternative ways to increase funding for it,” he said.
In working with current SA President Braxton Coombs, Jeter said one of their goals for the route is to increase the ridership for the 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. crowd.
“From 9:30 and on, it’s packed because people are wanting to go to bars, but from 6:30 to 9:30, we want to get people going to dinner and different things like that,” he said.
Jeter said he and Coombs are looking into including more stops on the route to make it more attractive to the dinner crowd.
“We even talked about changing the route up including some stops at CVS, Walgreens and a restaurant or two to increase ridership there,” he said.
However, a larger goal is to purchase another bus, Jeter said.
“Right now, our goal might be to improve the efficiency of it now and use what we have,” he said. “If we can somehow secure that extra funding through the university or through a grant or things like that, I think that a third bus would be really cool.”
Jeter said the reason for purchasing another bus would be to ensure the safety of its users.
“It would help because sometimes the bus goes around three times at a bar and people are still waiting [for a ride],” he said. “That’s not safe because some people could possibly try to get into their car if they are waiting that long.”
Relationship With Students
Jeter said though he thinks the relationship between the SA and the students is good, he acknowledges there is always room for improvement.
“I think the SA has done a very good job of being accessible and apparent,” he said.
He said having its office in the Colvard Student Union has helped SA’s relationship with students has grow.
“Having the Union back on campus has helped in a lot of ways because there is a central part of campus again and so having the SA office there is a very good thing,” he said. “It has been easier to for students to see work being done, to see the SA president more and to see people working in those offices.”
Jeter also said he thinks an interactive blog would be an effective way to receive student feedback.
“One of the things that I campaigned on last year but still haven’t gotten done is putting an interactional blog on our Web site,” he said. “We do those open forums, but they do not work.”
Jeter said since MSU students have access to the Internet, he hopes accessibility would act as an incentive for feedback for specific issues that concern them.
“Hopefully, this can be a way to enter the streets and get feedback from students,” he said.
Editor’s Note: This is the second 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.