In February of 2012, the students of Mississippi State University elected Blake Sheperd as treasurer of the Student Association. Since then, he has been working on his campaign goal to create transparency between the SA and the student body at MSU.
Sheperd, junior accounting major, said to The Reflectoron Feb. 28 he felt more transparency between the SA and the student body would be beneficial to the student body, as well as keep the SA accountable.
“This system will allow all students to stay informed and hold the entire SA accountable for the decisions it makes,” Sheperd said.
Sheperd said he began this process early with presenting the budget to the SA senate and getting its opinion earlier than it had been done in past years. 
“The actual budget approval is still being processed through the Appropriations Committee, but it was an important step in the right direction to get them involved as early as possible,” Sheperd said.
He said he intends to have the entire budget available on the SA website before his term is over.
Sheperd said he is very excited that this year the Appropriations Committee saw more requests than usual and that the Appropriations Committee was still in the process of appropriating this semester’s funds.
“We had more requests for fall semester appropriations than we had all of last year, which is a great sign of student involvement. The Student Association is here to enrich the lives of MSU students, so it is exciting to see more organizations start taking advantage of the opportunities we have to offer,” Sheperd said.
In his time being on the Executive Committee of the SA, he said he has really enjoyed his position and working with the others on the committee.
“The best part about being on Executive Committee is that I can really watch the entire SA work together to make this campus a better place. Everyone in SA from the Executive Committee, Cabinet and Senate to the committee members really work hard to improve the lives of MSU students,” Sheperd said.