Vol 90, No. 9

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EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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THE BLOTTER

CRIME BLOTTER

MAR 27TH

“They probably got lost on the way to Aderhold”

On Monday a non-GSU person was arrested on charges of criminal trespassing at “K” parking deck. This occurred between 8:40 and 8:42 in the morning.

“Sparks-cario”

On Monday, GSU PD arrested someone at Woodruff Park for a drug law violation. The incident occurred between 3:53 and 4:06 in the afternoon.

NEWS BRIEFS

“Stuck between a rock climbing gym and a hard place”

On Monday, GSU PD caught a nonGSU affiliated person trespassing at the Student Rec Center. The incident occurred between 4:58 and 5:03 PM and ended without arrest.

LOCAL

Downtown Shootout Strikes Reflection Student Apartments

While responding to reports of a party on Courtland Street at John Wesley Dobbs Avenueon Wednesday morning, police encountered a shootout between two sports cars. The incident occurred shortly before 2 AM. Police stated that some of the bullets fired struck Reflection Student Apartments. No one was injured during the shooting. Police are searching for multiple gunmen involved.

APRIL CALENDER

March 31, 2023

Voting Starts Voting Ends

NATIONAL INTERNATIONAL

Donald Trump Indictment Decision Delayed as Grand Jury Adjourns

Former President Donald Trump was indicted on Thursday for charges in New York relating to hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. The adult film actress claims their affair began in 2006, after his marriage to former First Lady Melania. Trump maintains his innocence, alleging that the investigation is politically motivated and that he did not have an affair. The case is centered on allegations of falsified business records stemming from the former President’s 2016 campaign. This is the first time in history that any president, current or former, has been indicted.

Mexican Migrant Center Fire Leaves at Least 38 Dead

At least 38 people were killed when a fire broke out at a migration center along the Mexico-U.S. border. The facility, located on the Mexico side of a bridge that connects Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas, held 68 men at the time of the accident. Mexican President Manuel Lopez Obrador claimed that the fire was started by detainees after they learned of their pending deportations. However, spokespeople for the migrants and officials at human rights organizations have refuted this claim.

Spread: Meet Your Candidates

The Signal had the opportunity to sit down with Zayvion and discuss his bid for President of SGA:

Where are you from?

“I am from Newton County, Georgia. I was born in Rockdale, and raised in Covington so I’m a full-blown Georgia Peach.

What are you majoring in and why are you majoring in it? Did that influence your decision to run for SGA president?

I am a criminal justice major. I am majoring in it because I want to work in the legal field as a prosecutor to help reform our criminal justice system. I think my underlying passion for change was what fueled me to run for SGA President. We really do need a lot of changes.

What are the biggest issues facing students at Georgia State and how do you plan on addressing those issues?

“I think the biggest issue is representation. That’s for all our campuses and when it comes to the Perimeter campuses, they are very underrepresented in Student Government. I think that we need to fundamentally change the makeup of Student Government to be a better representation of the students that we are supposed to serve. I am happy to work with the incoming government to change the constitution and the bylaws to make our system more of a representative body of the people that we want to serve.”

What kind of changes do you think would allow for better representation of perimeter campus students?

My biggest initiative is changing the way that our legislature is set up. Currently, we have the University-Wide Senate. Atlanta campus has 36 seats, and Perimeter only has 10. I want to make a bicameral legislature with the House of Representatives where, just by numbers, Atlanta would still have a proportional supermajority but counteracting that majority is the University Senate having a set amount of representatives, giving perimeter colleges a majority in that body. I think that would be a great step forward to keep collaboration and build bridges between them.

How do you feel about running uncontested?

“Considering our record low levels of student engagement; How do you plan on getting more students involved in their campus?”

“A lot of our students think of Georgia State University as a commuter school. Come here, get your degree, and go back home. That shouldn’t be happening. We are in the heart of Atlanta, at the entertainment capital of the South. I think we should use our position in the city and use our own ingenuity to keep students engaged here on campus. I want to start doing fun traditions like I want to have an SGA flag football game where you could have the opportunity to tackle your president, who wouldn’t want to come and tackle the president?

Why are you the person most qualified to represent students at GSU?

I think my being a freshman is an asset. I think having a fresh set of eyes to be able to look at this problem without the biases of “past experience” allows me to come at this from a very different angle. I also think that by being a freshman liaison, communicating with freshmen, which are a large part of our student population, and understanding what the needs of the folks are. My current chairmanship of the student services committee, and the work that my committee has done make me qualified. We’ve expanded access to condoms to be available in the SGA office. We are working around the clock trying to ensure students know what services our university provides. I think that in my short time here, I’ve proven that I can do the job.

I am sad. I feel as though we need a lot more involvement in SGA as a whole. I don’t like that there are vacancies and that a lot of our races are uncontested. I think that we as an organization need to do a lot of self-evaluation and see what we’re doing wrong because obviously, we’re doing something wrong. No one should be happy that a president is running uncontested, that our EVPs are running uncontested and a lot of our seats are vacant. We should want a full ballot and our students deserve to have a full ballot of options.

How do you plan to communicate with students to hear their needs and interests?

The two biggest ways are gonna be social media and face-to-face. I went to the Clarkston campus today just to put my face in front of students so that they could get to know who I am, what I’m running for, and what I think we should be doing. I think we need a lot more of that, a lot more face-to-face interaction with students. I think that we are missing that personable aspect of student government and I hope that I can bring that aspect to this organization.

What obstacles do you see getting in the way during your presidency?

I think the main obstacle that I will have is the preconceived notion that students have about SGA and trying to convince them that we are creating a new organization that is doing something different. We’re saying goodbye to the old ways and saying hello to the new ways. Convincing students after years of previous leadership, which has given them nothing, that this is our time to get things done is the biggest obstacle I see.

College of Arts and Sciences:

(from left to right) Nathan Brown, Allanis Ellis, Sa’Real McRae, Casey Purser

College of Arts

(from left to right) Delisa Hardnick, Carter Riddett, Taylor Simmons

Senators

Robinson College of Business: Pictured: Eriore Adeoluwa

Pictured - Jasmine Cox

Executive Vice President

Pictured : Zainab Badmus

College of Nursing and Health Professions

Sitting down with the 94th administration

Town hall for next year’s student government gives an insight into their policies and plans

It’s currently election season for Georgia State University’s Student Government Association, and the candidates for the top two positions in student government are running uncontested.

On March 29, the SGA held an open house for their upcoming election season. The event allowed candidates to introduce themselves to the student body and share their platforms and ideas for improving the university. Students heard from the senatorial candidates for the various colleges that make up Georgia State, before hearing from their soon-to-be SGA president and vice president.

The senatorial candidates discussed a wide array of issues that concern students. Some of the topics that were spoken on were PantherDining, academic advisement, housing and the wages of on-campus jobs. Safety on campus was a big talking point of the night. Senators Nathan Brown and Sa’Real McRae spoke about their plans on helping students feel safe while on campus. McRae said that she would like to act against the on-campus protesters and move Georgia State towards a culture of “compassion and inclusion”. Brown discussed his plans to work with and communicate the opinions of students to GSUPD.

“They are here to serve us. Our student fees are paying their salaries right. So why can’t we tell them or ask them to provide the kind of care and safety they can and should be providing us.”

Jasmine Cox, the executive vice-presidential candidate for the Atlanta Campus then took the stage to discuss her plans for the position. One of Cox’s biggest goals is to add a portion to the advisement center to help students find opportunities to apply the skills they have learned through their coursework. She proposes that advisors should help students with finding these opportunities.

“Instead of having to talk to these advisors just to ask what classes should I take, how do I get these credits I need for my degree? Thinking about, okay I have this coursework, I have this degree where can I apply them.”

Cox’s also discussed her ideas on how to engage more students with clubs and student life.

“I noticed with a lot of organizations, you’ll be interested in them and then you go on PIN, and it’ll says the last event happened two months ago.”

She proposed a change to the student organizations’ bylaws that would require organizations to remain active on PIN and encouraged organizations to remain active on social media.

The open house concluded with Zayvion Sheppard, the SGA presidential candidate who took to the stage to discuss his plans for his presidency. Sheppard spoke about his ambitious plan to restructure the SGA to ensure that students on the perimeter campuses have equal power and representation.

“ I want to make sure that our students on all of our campuses have an equal voice, and the way to do that is with a bicameral legislature”

Sheppard described that this new structure would include a house of representatives based on the proportion of students on each campus and a senate to balance the advantage the Atlanta campus has.

Students are encouraged to vote for their preferred candidate online over PIN on April 3.

DAVID HOFFMAN Staff Reporter

“ I want to make sure that our students on all of our campuses have an equal voice, and the way to do that is with a bicameral legislature”

— ZAYVION SHEPPARD Presidential Candidate

PHOTO BY: TRENT LEGASPI | THE SIGNAL

Games: Sudoku