According to Shelby Balius, Student Association president, the upcoming school year holds exciting changes and additions to benefit the students and faculty of Mississippi State University.
Balius said she is most excited about the new collaboration between Campus Activities Board and SA.
“The biggest change that we had over the summer I think is what I’m most excited about,” she said. “We have in some ways absorbed CAB and made a Student Association programming board.”
She said this will bring together the former members of CAB and SA cabinet members.
“They can collaborate a little bit more on making sure we’re using our resources wisely and providing a bigger variety of what we provide for programs on campus,” she said.
Balius said she is looking forward to working more with Faculty Senate President, Megan Millea, this year on getting policies revamped and initiated regarding issues for MSU’s students.
One of the policies, which was part of Balius’s election platform, is the movement of teacher evaluations to an online platform.
She said progress is being made to move the evaluation process online.
“It has been piece by piece building over the last three years,” she said. “It looks like we’re going to at least get some kind of a step accomplished this year which I’m very excited about.”
Another policy Balius hopes to implement is a dead week prior to final exams.
Dead week would encompass five calendar days before the Monday that finals begin during which professors would not be allowed to give any assignments that are worth more than ten percent of a student’s overall grade.
She said SA has been conducting research on the subject by looking at other schools, particularly Lousiana State University, who have had success with dead week and is working towards making the idea a reality.
As far as projects started by former SA president, Rhett Hobart, Balius said the proposed comprehensive online campus event calendar is still a work in progress.
She said research has been done to gather pertinent information in order to get the ball rolling on the project. However, it may still take several years.
 ”Now that we have that information we can pull that to ITS and through the dean of students’ office to see about getting everything online,” Balius said. “It’s a little bit further down the road than we wish it would be but it is definitely on the road now.”
With football season quickly approaching, Balius said Tents 4 Tickets will not be held this year but the system of buying tickets will not be entirely different.
“The ticket sales themselves will not be changed all that much,” she said. “The difference between last year and this year is that you can only start lining up at 6 a.m. on Saturday.”
Balius said reasons behind the change are safety concerns from last year’s event.
“The overwhelming number of people in the Junction creates problems with traffic flow on campus and problems with safety,” she said. “We had lines going from the M- Club all the way back to the chapel.”
She said this year they are delaying the sales in an effort to start the line in an orderly fashion rather than having an influx of people in the Junction and trying to form a line later.
Students will be able to get in line to buy football tickets at 6 a.m. Saturday, August 25.
Balius said the choice not to move ticket sales online is beneficial to our school spirit and cultivates excitement surrounding the football program. 
“If you actually have to come and buy your tickets, it presents an opportunity to harvest the spirit behind it,” she said. “When you have 11,000 people so excited to get their tickets that they want to camp out for it, that already sets the game day atmosphere a week before the game even starts.”
Also in preparation for football season, the second annual Cowbell Yell will take place Friday, August 31 in Davis Wade stadium.
She said SA has co-sponsored with the Alumni Association for this year’s Cowbell Yell event and the only major change from last year will be opening it to all fans, not strictly students.
Balius said this will be a great opportunity for all MSU fans to celebrate the tradition of the cowbell and to teach incoming students and other fans to ring their cowbells responsibly.
Something else Balius is excited about for MSU in this upcoming year? The growth of the Bulldog family.
“I love that we have a president that is so dedicated to growing our university,” she said. “When we grow our university we’re not just growing the people that come here and are affected by Mississippi State, we’re talking about the Bulldog family.”
Balius is passionate about each person who is affected by MSU and enjoys seeing other students, alumni and faculty who share that same enthusiasm.
 ”It’s not just me,” she said. “I’m always excited to see so many new faces and hear the stories of what attaches people and brings them back to Mississippi State.”
She encourages the incoming students to seize the opportunity to start their college career by getting involved with the SA.
“I think it is a great way to start out,” Balius said. “That is how the majority of our campus leaders have certainly started out and that’s how I really felt like a part of Mississippi State.”
She said SA committees are the easiest way to get involved, do not require a major time commitment, and allow students to bring fresh ideas to attention and meet new people.
“It always gets better when we have more people, more ideas, more manpower, more ability to really read what students want,” she said.  “It’s the ability to get them into a committee, get them plugged into an organization that really does harvest their own talents and inspires groups to work together to make new friends that you probably wouldn’t have met otherwise.”