T.J. Harvey says his biggest reason for running for the office of SA president is the fact that he loves our university and has ideas that will take the student body into the next couple of years.
“My platform includes bringing the Student Association to the students, which I know is clich,” Harvey said. “But we do have an idea of how we’re going to do that, and that is by creating a bi-monthly president meeting. Every other month we’ll bring in all the presidents from all other organizations into one council and ask them what their members want to see.”
Harvey also said he wants to create an e-mail list of all the student organization presidents, keeping them informed of other student activities. “This will put us one step closer to the general student body,” he said.
In addition to reaching out to organizations on campus, Harvey said he wanted to focus on MSU traditions. “Traditions are very important to me, and an idea that we have is creating what we’re going to call The State Book.”
Harvey said The State Book will have MSU traditions, history, the fight song and alma mater and trivial knowledge about the university. He added that the first publication of the book will go out to everyone available, and then later it will focus on transfer students, nontraditional students and freshmen. “It will help them learn about the university and educate them on our traditions,” he said.
MSU athletics is another focus of the Harvey campaign, where he said he will continue to fight for keeping seats and basketball tickets reserved for the students.
“Another idea we have is reserving small spaces in the Left Hand Lounge on a first come, first served basis,” Harvey said. “These would be for any organization to use as a membership drive.”
Harvey, who has worked with local and state officials while serving in a variety of positions, including chairman of the College Republicans, said he has the experience needed to fill the position by getting to know people at all different levels, getting to know the MSU administration and obtaining a working relationship with them.
He also said he had established a working relationship with many Mississippi legislators, as well as Gov. Haley Barbour.
“I’ll be working with students, leaders on campus,” Harvey said. “I’m able to work with them because of these other leader positions I’ve held. I know how they delegate.”
Harvey said he would like to lobby for a non-voting seat on the Starkville city council, where the student body could be heard and without the SA having to put an incredible amount of its resources into building this relationship. “I have talked to some city officials and have received some positive feedback,” he said.
As for the new election rules limiting the amount of time candidates can campaign, Harvey said. “Having been heavily involved in past campaigns over the past few years, I felt that some of my time was cut out. You need that month to build your base and get your campaign ready to go- to be able to work without restraints at least without a month.”
Harvey said there is a need to look at and see how long students are given to campaign. “I’d like to see more students run. It’s healthier for our student government if we have more ideas on the table, more people running.”
Concerning the recent controversy over early campaigning via thefacebook.com, Harvey said, “I believe that most likely thefacebook will be something we will see in the student senate in the future. Thefacebook is a new entity, and no one knew exactly what to do with especially since it’s removed from the university and has nothing to do with the university.”
“It caused controversy, and I didn’t mean for it to,” he continued. “It is something that I think was going to happen sooner or later, and … it will give us a new look at the way technology is going to be used for student campaigns, and how far are we going to allow our student constitution to reach out into technology that goes beyond our university.”
All in all, Harvey is committed to see his campaign through. “I’ve been here as a student, I’ve seen some of our organizations leave. As Student Association we want to be a support group for all of our student organizations. We want to provide as much support from the 2 percent tax, to allow as much of that as possible to devote to our student organizations, because they are the artery for our campus in freshman retention and giving out students things to do.”