After a year serving as Student Association president, Rhett Hobart will officially end his term on Thursday when Shelby Balius takes office. The familiarity of his office is gone – blank walls now lack framed renderings of Mississippi State landmarks and a now empty bookshelf is missing the collection of maroon and white memorabilia that has decorated it for a year. Although he has not officially moved out of the president’s office yet, Balius’s nameplate now sits on the president’s desk. The one constant is the collection of around 100 folders of information Hobart has used throughout the year.
These folders, along with agendas and minutes from meetings that have occurred from the past year that Hobart has been a part of serving as SA president and a computer database that covers every initiative and event the SA has, will be passed down to Balius during the transition process.
Transition, which began for Balius and Hobart the night of the election, has now almost encompassed a month.
“We sat down at 8 a.m. the next morning (after Balius was elected) and looked at our calendars,” Hobart said. “Transition serves as a way for me to pass down as much knowledge as possible.”
The SA has developed its transition process over the last four to five years, which has led to a system in which the officers attempt to pass down their expertise to the new administration. The result of this is that years of institutional understanding has been preserved, Hobart said.
This year, a 103 plus-page document that covers every SA position – including the cabinet and the senate – and the accomplishments made this year, along with a plan to move forward will be published online. The last document of this nature on record in the SA office was made during the 2002-2003 school year during Parker Wiseman’s term as SA president.
“It’s going to be very helpful. This is something everyone can see,” Hobart said. “My section is 20 pages, and it’s broken down by position … it will probably end up being longer.”
Along with the documents from this current year, Balius will have folders from previous presidents like Thomas Sellers and Blake Jeter. The SA has an extensive amount of records from the past, including the blueprints for the Junction.
Transition does not just involve the transference of documents – it is a physical process in which Balius has shadowed Hobart and has begun taking over his responsibilities as president and has meet with important players on campus.
“We share a calendar on Groupwise. Our calendars are the same except for classes. These meetings help,” Hobart said. “When I became vice president, (during transition two years ago) I met with ITS about BullyMail. We began moving into BullyMail my first month of office.”
Balius said she has gone or will go with Hobart to all the standing meetings the president is a part of.
“It is a chance to meet with the administration so we can work together, rather than against each other,” she said.
The SA president is a part of about 50 standing committees, 10 that are off campus in the city of Starkville.
“We attempt to go to as many as possible … I introduce her to the committee,” Hobart said. “Once I go with her to one, I pass it down to her.”
Although transition officially ends on Thursday, Hobart said it may continue in the sense that he will continue to go to scheduled meetings with Balius if they have not been concluded. As of now, they have meet with around 40 people out of about 60. However, as of Friday morning, all duties of the SA president will fall to Balius. Because it is important to carry on the programs and initiatives put forward from the previous year, Hobart said, the transition is more detailed for the president than other positions.
“If there’s any platform points we didn’t accomplish, we try to carry those over. In the last four years, we’ve tried to continue until its done. The Reveille was on Thomas’s platform; we accomplished it during my term. Teaching evaluations  we started during my term, and Shelby is carrying it forward,” he said.
During Hobart’s term, he said he has accomplished every point on his platform except the ones in the works, including the textbook exchange program and online event forms.
“The year wasn’t enough time to get it done, but the ball has started rolling,” he said. “We are working through contractual issues with the (textbook exchange) company. Once it is done, the website could be up within a month.”
The streamlined event calendar Hobart proposed is in the works – the committee was formed a year ago – and recommendations are now being made around campus.
Balius said the proposal to transfer the process of students taking teacher evaluations from paper to online has gone through dean’s council and the teaching evaluations committee has been consulted. Once that has been completed, it will move to the faculty senate and will probably be on the agenda of the first meeting of next year.
The reformation of teacher evaluations has to be done in two segments, Hobart said. The first segment deals simply with the process being done online. The second part would deal with students being able to view part of teacher evaluations.
Kentucky and MSU are the only two schools in the SEC who do not have teacher evaluations online, Balius said.
“There is broad agreement to put them online in general,” she said. “We don’t reinvent the wheel. It’s important to look at what other schools are doing. We are looking at peer universities to ensure the best procedures possible are developed for our university.”
As Hobart completes his term as president, he said he is working to roll over projects to the new administration so it can continue what has not been finished. He will continue to work with the bullring project after his term ends in order to ensure its success.
“A lot of what we’re doing right now is looking at things we’ve started doing this administration and how to carry them over to this next year,” he said. “Transition has gone smoothly because of (Balius’s) previous knowledge.”
After responding to roughly 10,000 emails, surviving Tents for Tickets and providing the campus with new traditions and programs, Hobart said he is ready to move on. He said he’s proud of what he has done in the past year, including hearing at Cowbell Yell the remark from a cameraman who has worked for ESPN for 25 years state that he has never seen a student body this energized. He also was able to resurrect the class gift tradition and The Reveille.
“Restoring and creating traditions was a goal of mine from the beginning,” he said.
The SA as a whole has become more transparent and has better connected with the campus through avenues like Twitter, he said.
As Balius takes office, Hobart said he is confident she can be successful in her new role.
“I’m excited about the leadership Shelby will be able to exhibit as SA president. Through her experience with the SA in previous, I know she has the institutional and ability to continue moving the SA forward and representing the needs of every student at Mississippi State University,” he said.
Balius said as she moves forward, she is excited about cabinet selections, applications for which are due on Friday. The cabinet will have five new programming positions, which Balius said will allow for more involvement for motivated students.
As she moves forward, Balius said she wants to prioritize the desires of the students when choosing programming because she only has a year.
“I want to reach out (to the student body) and be a visible person,” she said. “I’m very excited to have the opportunity I have, but it’s even more meaningful to have it on the foundation in which I do. We’ve had an incredible year at the SA.”