The Student Association passed a resolution Tuesday to begin creating a committee that will participate in community affairs by working with city officials.
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Senator Will Barrett presented the resolution and described the functions of the committee.
“It won’t be an SA committee; it will be an official city committee,” Barrett said.
The SA hopes the committee will create better relations on what has grown to be a great foundation. The city has a student-friendly mayor and an elected MSU student on the Board of Aldermen. This committee continues this great progress, Barrett said.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for students to voice their opinions within the community,” Barrett added.
This resolution marks the first step in what will be a very important process, but many must follow. Last year’s SA president, Jon David Cole, formed a similar committee within the SA. The committee met with city officials on a regular basis; however, those members quit attending when there were not that many things to do, SA attorney general Aaron Rice said.
“It pretty much dwindled out and died,” he said.
This new committee will involve students appointed by the city, which will mean students will not have complete control over the committee, but the benefit stands strong, Rice said.
“What we gain in the process is a committee that won’t go away over night,” he added. “We’ve got a great relationship, and we’ve worked real hard to get it.”
Members of the Student Association met with Starkville Mayor Dan Camp two weeks ago in order to discuss what needed to be done to make sure this committee worked. In working with the last committee that teetered off, Camp asked the SA to meet some prerequisites before he signed off on this new committee, Rice said.
“We kind of need to get our game together before we go in there,” he said. “The bottom line is that it’ll be specifically to make Starkville the most student-friendly town in Mississippi.”
After passing the resolution, the next step for the committee will involve creating an interim committee to work within the SA until the city approves the final committee, SA president JR Love said.
“We’re doing an application process to see who’s interested,” Love said.
Rice and Love will interview people who are interested in a position on the committee during this next week, and then the student association will define some of the goals it thinks will best guide this committee, Love said.
“Then, we will meet with the mayor with some of our recommendations,” Love added.
The overall benefit of this committee comes from the fact that students can help the city understand students, Love said.
“Students will be able to give a real positive perspective as far as what students want,” he said. “Students know what students want best.”
Applications for the interim committee are available at Herbert Hall and are due November 17.
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