New Student Association President Michael Hogan plans to build the the name and reputation of the Mississippi State University’s SA by tackling student body apathy differently than his predecessors.
“Everyone has been focusing on the student body as a whole, which I think is a huge, great picture to focus on, but it’s very difficult to focus on,” he said.
Rather, by working from the inside out, Hogan said he hopes to make the students working in different aspects of the SA – cabinet, senate and committee members, for example – excited to be part of the organization, which in turn can spread to those not involved in the SA on a day-to-day basis.
“That’s going to be my main target – to make sure that these students who are giving 110 percent … get to have this incredible experience they’re going to share with everyone,” he said.
Rhett Hobart, 2011-2012 SA president, said he believes in the last four to five years, the SA has made steps to become more transparent and proactive in accomplishing goals that better the lives of students, especially with the boom of social media.
Although apathy still exists toward student government, which is across the board nationally, Hobart said social media has helped students at MSU feel more connected – that they can have more of an input in decisions.
 ”The goal of SA in everything is to carry the concerns and be the voice for the student body at all levels of the university administration, the city, the state and national levels,” he said. “That direct interaction with students through social media and other interactions has allowed the student body to provide more direct insight on what they want to see.”
Eddie Keith, associate dean of students, said the SA has evolved, but the mission of the SA’s constitution is still to encompass all students.
“The nice thing about it is that everybody, every student is a member of the SA by definition,” he said. “The challenge is for the SA to be as inclusive as possible.”
Hobart said students providing their input and feedback to the SA allows student leaders to tailor their initiatives more to the desires of the student body.
“I can’t tell you how many times I was stopped on campus with students just telling me general concerns, which I really appreciate,” he said. “People don’t understand  that you really do appreciate that when you’re SA president … getting stopped and getting advice, getting feedback. Because that’s how you grow and get better.”
In keeping with connecting with students, Hogan said he plans to enact the open door policy that was on his presidential platform.
“Something that we’re really excited about is in the fall each cabinet member and each executive member, along with each senator, will have office hours and will hold them every single week,” he said.
These hours will be posted on the SA website, and students will have the opportunity to see what SA representatives do or ask questions.
Along with office hours, Hogan plans to review and revamp the SA website to make it more informative and user-friendly.
“I will be spending some time with our public relations cabinet members to discuss their view of the website … just to see how we can improve,” he said. “We’re going to spend some significant time on, during the summer, trying to revamp that and just get an overall better look for the website, so that’s definitely something within my sights.”
Hogan has also created the position of executive assistant, which will be held by Haley Grantham, to replace the press secretary role. He described the position as a “catch-all,” and she will be acting as a liaison between all internal staff of the SA. She will still work with public relations, especially with the cabinet members who hold public relations postitions.
After choosing cabinet, Hogan said he hopes to delegate tasks to the students he chose and plans to work on every aspect of his platform.
“I’m lucky enough enough to say that this year for cabinet we’re very diverse in we have a lot of different outlooks, opinions across the board that are going to be very beneficial for us. These are going to be the things that everything from non-Greek to minority to freshmen to senior, we’ve got the whole board covered in that I’ve got some great student leaders who will be working day-to-day with the Student Association,” he said.
In order to create an awareness for senate and elections next year, Hogan said he plans to start at orientation with freshmen and hopes senators will speak about their experiences during the organization fair.
Even as Hogan plans to create change, he said he will follow many of the procedures of his predecessors in the day-to-day aspect of the job.
Morgan McDowell, senior and senator for the College of Business, who has served in some capacity through the SA for the majority of his college career, said he commends this school year’s executive council and senate and believes excellence will continue in the future administrations.
“I look forward to the future … Seeing these guys and girls in these leadership positions and seeing it just as good as when we left it,” he said. “And that’s really what it’s all about, that’s what the student leaders in the Student Association want … for it to be just as good if not better as when you left it.”