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Jimerson plans changes for SGA

New SGA president Will Jimerson came to the first meeting of the semester with a road map to success, and left with renewed interest from the senators.

That road map is a three-page strategic plan that Jimerson unveiled on Monday night, which discussed changes, improvements and ways to increase the SGA’s visibility among the VSU community.

“[This is] everything that goes along with our platform, and things that we can take action on this semester,” Jimerson said. “This is the fun part of the SGA.”

The plan included what were termed “areas of concern”—points that were red-flagged by the SGA as problems within the organization.

Jimerson pointed out various ways to deal with these areas of concern, through six objectives, and various strategies for accomplishing these objectives.

“This presents a lot of opportunities for us this year, and I am excited to get this year started,” Jimerson said.

One of the strategies involved getting a “ground team” to the students to inform them about the SGA.

“One thing that I noticed about this campus when I was campaigning was that a lot of people did not know about the SGA when I was out on the ground,” Jimerson said. “We want to start that with the SGA, where we get people out on the ground on Monday when we’re wearing our polos [SGA shirts]. Just walk around the Student Union at certain hours to where the students have any concerns they know that they can come to you.”

The SGA has also rolled out a Student Concern form on their website and a 24-hour hotline through which students can express their concerns.

“It’s tailored to where we can see how [the students] would like the issue resolved,” Jimerson said in an interview on Tuesday.

SGA plans to review each concern and examine how the students would like to see change happen.

In addition, a day called “Put it on Blast” was also announced by the SGA. “Put it on Blast” would be an open forum where students could express their problems with Jimerson—as well as VSU President Dr. William McKinney and Dean of Students Russell Mast, who proposed the idea.

No date has been set for “Put it on Blast.”

“If they have anything they want to talk about, they can come in and speak to us,” Jimerson said. “It’s not taking the place of a town hall meeting, but it’s more interactive with the representatives.”

Jimerson also expressed desire to increase the SGA’s involvement in the Planning and Budget Council.

The SGA officially has two voting representatives in the PBC and one non-voting representative – the SGA president – but these representatives were mostly absent from these meetings, and Jimerson noted that the SGA had abandoned the PBC.

“We need a strong student representation on our university committees,” Jimerson said. “This is where our student activity fees come in, and we haven’t had a representative go to those meetings in a year, maybe more than that.”

A look at past minutes from Planning and Budget meetings show that an SGA representative attended these minutes three times between August of 2012 and this May—twice from then-president Ryan Baerwalde, a non-voting member, and once from Hassanat Oshodi, a voting member.

The SGA also announced changes to the requirements for new senators to join the organization.

Previously, a senator hoping to get a vacant seat didn’t need any signatures.

Now, students wishing to become senators need 100 signatures on his or her election packet. Previously, freshmen hoping to become senators needed only 50 signatures.

“We could all get that in the line at Chick-Fil-A,” Jimerson said.

The election packets required for upperclassmen and freshmen senators were made available on Wednesday, and freshman packets are due on Aug. 29. Voting will take place on Sept. 5 and 6.

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