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.