Mississippi State University will hold Student Association inaugural services for the newly elected executive council on Tuesday, March 9 at 6:30 p.m.
Outgoing President Blake Jeter said when the torch is passed, the new executives will be ready to hit the ground running.
Jeter said President-elect Thomas Sellers has already started the transition.
“Thomas and I have been meeting with administrators, city officials and student leaders,” Jeter said. “He’s expressing his vision with these people and getting advice so they’ll all be on the same page.”
Incoming Treasurer Randall Weems said the transition began this week.
“We’re trying to get a little bit of a head start,” he said.
Incoming Attorney General Nathan Upchurch said he has met with Halston Hales, outgoing attorney general. The executive council has been working in the SA office and has already had its first meeting
“It’s crazy to see how well we get along,” Upchurch said. “I think this year is going to be very good for us.”
Sellers said he is excited and honored to serve as president. He said he had the opportunity to see the inner workings of the SA when he served as administrative liaison before his election as president.
“Since I was involved last year, I was really able to hit the ground running,” he said.
Sellers said the first major thing to accomplish is the cabinet selection. Made up of 25 to 30 students, the cabinet works with everything from external events to international student affairs. Sellers and Chief of Staff Price Davis have already finished the applications and they are now available for students.
Sellers said the SA has done a great job improving its Web site, but there are more improvements to be made.
Sellers said he wants to let students know what the SA is doing, and how they can get involved. He also wants students to be able to offer more feedback.
“We’re here to serve the student body and if we’re not letting them know what’s going on, that’s a problem,” he said.
Sellers said he wants to see an SA newsletter be e-mailed, with hard-copies around campus.
“We need to let the people we represent know what we’re doing for them,” he said.
Incoming Vice President Rhett Hobart said he has already begun on his goals.
“I’m really excited to tackle those goals,” he said. “We’re working on a lot of things to benefit the student body as a whole, and we’ve already started the ball rolling.”
Hobart said he wants to fix the “e-mail problem” because it would let students hold a lot more messages in their inboxes.
“I’m meeting with ITS, and we’re hoping to have this ready before the fall semester,” he said.
According to the Google Apps for higher education Web page, Louisiana State University, Mississippi College and Vanderbilt University are using Gmail.
Hobart said the True Maroon campaign is also important. His hope is to expand it and have a new campaign every year.
“In general, we just really want to make sure students know we’re really here to help them,” he said. “If they have ideas, something they want to see happen, let us know. Get with us, get with a senator, because we want to do everything we can to benefit students.”
Upchurch echoed Hobart’s concern for students. He said the No. 1 priority is to make sure student voices are heard.
One place student voices should be heard is in the state legislature, Upchurch said. A lobbying group could be very beneficial to the university and the students. Lobbying legislators is something he and Sellers are very concerned with, he said.
“We want to put a face with higher education. That’s what this lobbying committee would do,” Upchurch said.
Sellers said creating the lobbying committee is to be proactive. With budget cuts and things affecting Mississippi State on a large scale, students are affected, he said.
“We want to be present so they know when they cut the budget, they’re not just affecting the buildings; they’re affecting students here, our futures and the future of Mississippi,” Sellers said.
Upchurch said the candidates did not promise anything that can’t be done and there are some beneficial plans for the university.
Valerye Windham, incoming secretary, said she is excited to help the others elected meet their goals. She said she thinks they have a lot of great ideas and many things are going to be changing on campus.
She said being a part of two committees made her love MSU more. A junior political science major, she said she really enjoyed serving the university, and that’s why she ran for office.
“This will let me give back to Mississippi State in a bigger way,” she said.
Like Windham, Weems said his two terms on the SA Senate made him want a more involved role with the SA.
“I always felt I could do more,” he said. “This office will give me opportunity.”
Weems said he has ideas to improve the freshman experience. He said he has also evaluating the budget for the future and looking for ways to appropriate funds more efficiently.
“We have a lot to look forward to for the coming year,” Weems said.
Jeter said he is extremely excited about Sellers and the administration he will have. The candidates are all very passionate and they’ve already been working, trying to get their vision for the year set.
He said he believes what he and the outgoing executives have accomplished will serve the incoming executives.
“Hopefully what we’ve done has set more groundwork and laid a foundation for them so they can be even more successful than we were,” Jeter said.