The Mississippi State University Student Association is unveiling a new online tool to increase student feedback in hopes to find more ways to improve campus life.
The SA Executive Council has set out to achieve a common goal this semester: a more inclusive SA to bring about a more consistent and beneficial relationship between the SA senators and their respective constituents.
Ben Mackin, director of special interests for the Student Association, was one of the minds behind the SA’s new polling tool.
“We have students come up here (to the SA offices) all the time,” Mackin said. “We have students e-mail Tyler (the SA President) all the time with complaints or ideas or anything really. So, when we go to administrators with these problems and we want solutions or have a solution in mind for the administrators, a lot of the time they want a quantifiable way to show that students are sharing these problems.”
The new polling system is to appear on the myState homepage under the long-dormant “myState polling” section. The first question will pertain to the use of block meals at retail locations, like Moe’s or Starbucks.
Mackin hinted at the possibility of using the Student Life tab on myState for similar polling purposes, as well as the possibility of polling to be used by the SA Senate for legislative purposes.
As the director of special interests, Ben also gave previews for several upcoming events during the semester: a political debate in late January, trips to the Mississippi Capitol building to meet legislators known as “Cowbells to the Capitol,” Block-for-Block drives throughout the semester and an LGBTQ+ Pride Week in the spring.
Many initiatives created last semester will have a lasting impact on MSU students for the foreseeable future.
Both President Tyler McMurray and Vice President Layton Little heralded the updated ID cards as a big step forward for both SA and the student body. Starting in Fall 2018, the back of the ID’s will now have the suicide prevention hotline, campus police department and counseling center phone numbers.
In addition, academic advising is now centralized between all colleges, and training is now available to all advisors willing to participate, which the SA hopes will lessen the confusion and frustration students may feel during advising. This change is directly linked to the Senate’s efforts last semester to pass a bill in favor of adding an advising training policy.
Little was optimistic for the SA Senate’s spring semester. As elections were moved toward March, this is the first year the senators will have a full spring semester to continue working on legislation.
Little explained internal training needed to improve to limit the learning curve for new senators and to create a more seamless transition between terms. Legislatively, Little discussed a new bill aiming to improve paratransit systems to help transport disabled students across campus, as there is only one bus capable of doing so now.
Little said his goals for the Senate this semester is to focus on encouraging the senators to be more immersed in the student body.
“I continually tell them [the senators] that they need to focus externally on the student body as a whole and the needs of the students, and not focus internally on what they think might be beneficial to Senate or just to SA in general,” Little said.
McMurray talked about the SA’s goals as a general entity. Many of the goals were improvements to preexisting programs. Some of which were healthier dining options, increased mental health programs, growing the online syllabus bank and continuing the safe-ride Cowbell Carts program.
However, when it came to specifics, McMurray talked about continuing to improve students’ ability to use Old Main to its fullest potential, listening to students’ voices and improving academic advising.
While McMurray is devoted to this semester, she is ensuring she leaves the MSU SA in a strong position for the future senators and executives.
“For this semester, we want to make sure there are proper foundations in place for the next administration to be able to accomplish anything they want,” McMurray said.