Results of the Student Association Senate elections were announced Sept. 3, and the newly-elected officers will serve to represent students in their colleges for the 2013-2014 school year.

The Student Association Senate, similar to the United States Congress, holds the right to pass legislation and make amendments to the SA Constitution.

Shelby Sims, Student Association vice president, said SA Senate is beneficial to the Mississippi State University student body.

“Senate can bring changes to student life by passing legislation to be considered by other entities such as faculty senate, faculty or administrators,” Sims said. “Many times when faculty or staff groups need a focus group to pitch ideas to students and gain feedback, they will come talk to the Student Association Senate because it is representative of the student population on campus.”

One of Sims’s main jobs as vice president is to serve as chairman of SA Senate.

“It is my job to work with the senators and teach them how to write legislation and practice proper parliamentary procedure,” Sims said. “I preside over the meetings and make sure that the senators are conducting business in a professional way.”

Clint Pride, elections commissioner, is in charge of creating, facilitating, monitoring and policing the elections held on MSU’s campus.

Pride said he believes it is “always fun” to see new people getting involved with senate.

“Every year, the Senate passes bills and resolutions that directly affect MSU college students, such as updates to the Academic Forgiveness Policy,” Pride said. “These newly-elected senators are important, and that is why we encourage everyone to run and to vote.”

MaryBeth Cox, junior human sciences major, was recently elected as senator for the College of Agriculture and Life Science.

Cox said she decided to run for senate partly because she wanted to meet people in her major and in her college.

“I want to get to know them and see what problems they have or what suggestions they have so we can help make Mississippi State even better than it already is,” Cox said.

Cox said she ran for senate with hopes to serve other students and to better the MSU campus.

“There are always improvements that can be made,” Cox said. “Sometimes we don’t know the right people to tell or the right ways to handle the situation. I see this position helping students have a voice in their experience as MSU students.”

Margaret Virden, senior business management major, was just re-elected as representative for the College of Business.

Virden said she really enjoys being behind the scenes as well as representing her peers.

“I was really excited to hear my name announced this year,” Virden said. “I was honored that the students in the College of Business re-elected me, allowing me to represent them another year.”

Virden also gave insight to her plans for this year.

“We revamped the election code last term, so I’m interested to see how that works this year and to see if we can further improve that area of the constitution,” Virden said. “I want to continue to represent the student body’s interests and ideas and pursue altering the Constitution to better student life here.”