Over the past year, I have had the honor and privilege of serving the student body as Student Government Association vice president for student affairs and am now a candidate for executive vice president. As elected leaders, it is our job to work each and every day for the betterment of all students on campus.
It has been my goal to make campus life a little easier and more enjoyable for students, and I feel that while there is always room for improvement, we have largely accomplished this over the school year. For next year, I intend to take that same approach to the office of executive vice president, working with the others to ensure success.
While serving as vice president for student affairs, I have worked with others to create new programs like the Fall Art Stroll, which gave artists a chance to showcase their work, Textbooks for Troops, where textbooks were collected for campus veterans, and the Spirit Points initiative which offers students rewards for attending campus events. In addition to these new programs, we provided charter bus transportation to Knoxville, Tenn., for the Alabama-Tennessee game through Ride With the Tide and organized Landlords, Leases and Legalities, which gave students a chance to ask local housing experts questions pertaining to signing a lease and dealing with a landlord, as well as numerous other projects.
As executive vice president, I believe we can expand Ride With the Tide to include more away games and additional sports. The high level of participation last year also encourages us to offer more buses to provide more students with safe and free transportation to watch the Crimson Tide.
I also look forward to making changes to and improving the RAGE concert. While it was lacking in some respects last year, with the right musical artist and a better date, we can make the event even more successful and raise more money for student scholarships. In order to achieve this goal, we must ask students what type of artist they most prefer to hear. The event has great potential to unify campus, and I anticipate great results for next year.
Another important issue our campus will have to address next year is the possibility of a smoking ban. Recent coverage by The Crimson White and debate by the SGA Senate ensures that opinions are strong both for and against the proposal. As a student body, we must come together to decide what type of policy is needed (if at all).
Before we can take action, it is critically important that we know the preferences of the entire student body. In order to accomplish this, a campuswide survey must be conducted to collect information on whether students favor a total smoking ban, designated smoking areas, or simply better enforcement of the existing regulations. If the survey shows that students heavily favor one direction over another, we must respect that in Student Government.
Even though this year I am unopposed, it has not changed the way I have campaigned for office nor will it dampen the fervor with which I will work to improve campus life here at the University. On Tuesday, I would love to have your vote.
Will Pylant is running for the SGA Executive Vice President position. He currently serves as the SGA Vice President of Student Affairs.
